Gears and Grit
by Sligo
Summary: Post Disaster Year 323. Poverty, War, and Death have shaped the society Aurora lives in. As a young mechanic of Chryse Guard Security, she must to learn to navigate the world around her when she and her friends become the targets of a non-government peacekeeping force. Adaptation of events in Mobile Suit Gundam: Iron-Blooded Orphans. (In progress)
1. 1

Chapter 1

It was so cold that day. I was so hungry. Alone.

Why was I alone?

Oh right, they all died.

Every last one of them.

The sickness took them and only I lived.

No one would take in an untrained kid like me. Jobs were harder to come by than food.

I still don't know why Nadi did it.

I remember the alley I was in, cold and dirty with the stink of unwashed bodies. I was too hungry to move, my clothes hung like blankets off of my bones. I was waiting to die. Just like everyone else.

Then a large man walked by. Usually when an adult comes through they take the boys. They are supposed to be stronger, or something like that.

I remembered being confused when he stopped in front of me. I remembered his boots too: they were scuffed and marked with oil stains. They were the same as my father's boots.

I looked up at him in confusion; the CGS logo embroidered on his jacket was all I could remember seeing. What was that supposed to stand for? Oh yeah: Chryse Guard Security. I had recalled him from my father's machine shop. He would come in sometimes, he was very nice and my father liked him. My father did not like many people; I guess I took after him a little bit.

Nadi, that was the man's name.

"What are you doing here Aurora?" It had been a while since I heard my own name: I had nearly forgotten the sound of it. He crouched down in front of me. I opened my mouth to answer but nothing came out.

"It's okay, you don't need to speak. I saw your old man's place but I thought you had moved. I've been walking around all day looking for it."

Of course he had not heard. He had been away at he base for the past three months; we were supposed to have had his next shipment available a week earlier. That did not matter anymore. Nothing mattered because I was going to die.

Nadi paused, I thought he was going to leave me but he did not. Instead he brought me back to the base. I had been taught how to read and I knew some stuff about machines and first aid so I guess that was why I was not forced to have the "Whiskers" implanted into my spine. Maybe Nadi threatened to quit. The president is enough of a coward that that had probably worked.

It has been nine years since the day Nadi saved me. I have made a few friends in that time; I have also lost a few more. It is quite the story if you want to hear it.

"Aurora!"

A loud voice snapped my concentration. I had been working on one of our old mobile workers. Big machines that looked like those old tanks from the war books. They had two guns instead of one and were a lot faster and more maneuverable. This one didn't want to start up and I was figuring out why. I was up to my arms in grease when Nadi came calling.

"Have you seen Orga around? Maruba's been calling for him but I can't find him anywhere."

Nadi was a big, dark skinned man. He sported more wrinkles than the day he pulled me out of the alley, more gray hair too. Though he likes to say that I caused them. His steel shoes clanked through the hangar until he was beside the old machine.

"Any luck with this old thing?" He patted the side of the mobile worker affectionately.

I pulled my head out of the main engine, a bit of my red-brown hair had pulled free of the braid I usually kept it in. It was cold but I didn't want to risk getting even more grease on my CGS jacket. Even the tank top I wore was so stained I couldn't remember the original color.

"Haven't seen Orga all day. Mika could probably find him though. And I'm getting close with this one. I think I figured out where the bug is."

Mika, Mikazuki, was Orga's best friend. They were both around my age but it was hard to tell exactly. They came into the company together and it hadn't taken long to figure out that they treated each other like brothers, and that Mika followed Orga without question.

Orga was, well, interesting to say the least. There was something tragic about him, like an ill-fated hero in an adventure story. All of the boys around the base looked up to him and treated him like their leader. It was almost cute.

"Alright, there'll be a training run later today. Make sure the Workers are set up."

I gave him the salute I knew he'd hate, "Yes sir!"

He shook his head and sighed in exasperation at me, "Well I'll see ya."

I was back in the machine before he could turn around. One of my many talents that kept my butt here and not out on the streets was my knack for making broken down machines obey. This one was no different. There had been rust build up around some of the moving parts, I had to remove that and fix a couple connections and, in theory, the machine would be back up and working.

I jumped off of the mobile worker and looked around the hangar. The boys were busy with their various jobs. Nothing big or special that day, just the usual maintenance chores. I spotted one boy in particular, his name was Yamagi Gilmerton. He was very quiet, I've only ever heard him say "yes sir" or "yes mam", and he hid most of his face behind blonde, bowl cut hair.

"Yamagi!" I called, he looked up from the stack of tools he was reorganizing.

"I need a hand with some of the mobile workers, wanna come?"

He nodded and within minutes we were running through each of the machines. I didn't let him use the Whisker implant with the machines, it was important to learn how to use them without it. Well, that and I hated what the company did to the kids when they came in. Whenever we got a new boy in I would make sure to avoid the surgery room. Not that it could even be called a room; they usually just set up a table somewhere relatively free of work clutter and went at it.

I hadn't realized the time until Yamagi's stomach reminded me. His face turned a slight pink and I bit back a laugh.

"Go get cleaned up and eat something, I'll clear up here." He nodded and hopped out of the cockpit.

I made sure to put different paint colors in each one before I left. One of the pilots would definitely not appreciate it and I had a pretty good idea as to who it would be.

After I had the mechs lined up and the tools cleared away I dashed away to the washroom. I was technically a part of the Third Army like Tamagi and Mika so I was assigned the same quarters as them. I was also one of the few girls on the base so I got to go to the showers at a different time from the others. I didn't care so much when I was younger but the past few years I've been thankful for Nadi's foresight.

I glanced longingly at the showers but managed with the sinks. I scrubbed most of the dirt from fingernails by the time the tap water turned from tepid to freezing. Nadi always insisted that our hands be clean if we wanted to eat.

I decided there was no helping my stained shirt so I pulled my jacket on to cover it and headed out to the food pavilion. The usual gunshots and explosion of practice drills echoed through the halls. It sounded like the mechs were out and running well.

The sun was high by the time I got outside. There was a stiff breeze to, I was quite glad for my jacket.

"Aurora!" Oh great, Captain Haeda's lap dog Sasai. He had a dark look on his ugly face, his lips were drawn back from his overbite into something that could pass for a grimace. His sandy brown hair whipped around in the wind. I looked down at my uniform his was cleaner. Another way to show the First Army was superior.

Just my luck that he finds me when I'm on my own.

"What is it?" I tried to push the distaste out of my voice but he must have heard it anyway. At least I managed to keep my stare level, If I looked down or seemed insecure I knew he would target me even more than he already did. Showing weakness to a predator was as good as a death sentence.

"Is that any way to talk to a senior officer, girl?"

I kept my mouth shut; it would only get me into even more trouble. Unfortunately he took that as an insult too. He narrowed his eyes at me then, faster than I could dodge; he grabbed my left ear and twisted until I was bowed lower than him.

"Maybe I should teach you how to show proper respect to your superiors."

His fetid breath was all I could smell; I wanted to vomit at its stench and at how close I was to the nasty man. I fought to keep my face from twisting into a pained grimace.

"Is there a problem here?" Relief rushed through me when Sasai released my ear. I resisted the urge to clutch at it even though it hurt.

"There's no problem, Orga." I said quickly. He was behind me and hung his arm over my shoulder. Sasai backed down a bit, typical coward to act tough until he's outnumbered.

"Sasai was just telling me about a few of the First Army machines needing to be refueled. Right Sir?" He scowled at me then looked to Orga, he deflated a bit. How interesting.

"Yeah, make sure to pass that on to Nadi, I don't want you screwing something up."

Sasai stalked away toward one of the fields. I could see some of the kids from the Third Army on a landmine drill and prayed that he didn't take out his anger on them. I could not stand it when others paid for my actions.

When he was far enough away I swore and clutched at my ear. The pain was a little more dull but I couldn't smother my stinging pride. Orga didn't move from behind me but I'm pretty sure he watched Sasai until he was out of sight.

I bumped my hip into Orga, "Thanks, I don't know how I would've gotten out of that one."

He moved the hand that had been on my shoulder to my head, "Don't worry about it," He looked down at me, one corner of his mouth twitched into a small grin, "Instead I'd worry about Eugene when he finds you. How did you figure out which mobile worker he'd choose?"

I let a smile break out on my face, so I got it right. "He likes the one with the least sticky steering. You'd think he'd have learned by now not to get in a prank war with me."

Orga sighed, a sound that came from deep in his chest. It sounded like something more than typical Third Army antics had caused it. I glanced up at him. His red scarf fluttered a bit beneath his jacket and his usually wild white hair was even more untamable in the wind. He had a far off look in his golden eyes; beneath them were darker circles than usual.

"What's wrong?"

"Maruba gave the Third Army a high profile assignment."

"Isn't that a good thing? Unless he's setting you guys up to fail. What's the assignment?" I ducked out from under his hand and started walking to the pavilion. I hadn't eaten since sunrise, something my stomach was quite unhappy about. Orga's much longer legs brought him beside me again.

He grinned, I knew he liked that I could draw conclusions nearly as quickly as he could, "Escorting a person named Kudelia Aine Bernstein to Earth."

I stopped for a moment and narrowed my eyes at this. Bernstein. I'd heard that name before. She was one of the people involved in the Chryse liberation movement and, to a greater extent, the Mars Independence Movement. She was also the daughter of the representative of Chryse, our city-region. For president Maruba to allow the Third Army to do something like this was strange. A high profile client was usually reserved for the adults in the First Army.

"What is he thinking?"

"Well thanks for your confidence."

We'd arrived at the pavilion by then. It wasn't much, just a kitchen with benches and tables under a small roof. The noise of the Third Army kids made it more cheerful.

"Orga, you know how highly I think of your pilots. You guys don't wear down the machines like the First Army does. But Maruba doesn't think of you guys that way. We both know this."

He grabbed two bowls of mash from the counter, I snagged spoons and glasses of water. We made our way to a quieter corner of the pavilion to talk. I sat beside him of course.

When I reached for the second bowl, he looked down at me in mock confusion.

"Wait where's your food?" He joked.

"Oh please," I pushed past him and claimed the food for myself, "Maybe I'll put pink paint in your practice mech next time."

"Spare me please."

We sat in comfortable silence for a while. The breeze had died down by now, the sounds of the practice run had long faded away. I was not looking forward to de-gumming the practice Workers.

"When will you guys leave?" I asked quietly.

"So eager to be rid of us?" He raised an eyebrow at me. I gave him my best cheeky grin.

"Oh yes, leave me alone so I can be a tyrant." I ranked below him in the Third but I was still pretty high up there. When he and the other pilots were called away the role of leader usually fell to me. At least it did outside of the maintenance bays; Nadi reigned supreme in there.

"Maybe I should leave someone to make sure the power doesn't go to your head."

"Leave me Biscuit! We never finished talking about the new adventure book. The one that takes place on earth. It has things called dwarves, orcs, giant birds, and even a wizard. " Biscuit Griffon was a tubby, gentle boy from the town. He knew how to read too.

"Nah, maybe I'll leave Eugene."

I crossed my arms and pouted a bit, "But he'll still be mad about the paint and I want to win the war."

"True, you may have the whole place covered in pink paint by the time we come home." He laughed. It was a good sound to hear, Orga's laugh. I liked that he tipped his head back a bit when he did it too.

"Aurora." I froze, Eugene had called my name in a voice was that kind of gentle quiet where you know something bad is about to happen. I pretended that I didn't hear it and tried to finish my mash quickly. Orga laughed silently at me.

"You're gonna get it." He whispered.

I shot him a glare.

"Try that again when your face isn't stuffed."

Just in time Eugene arrived, Mika, and a tall boy named Shino were right behind him. I ignored the furious tall blond boy and waved at Mika and Shino. They all wore different variations of the CGS uniform: Mika's own jacket was thicker and came down past his waist, he rolled up the sleeves so his hands were free; shino kept his jacket tied up around his waist; The latter was nice but a little too girl crazy for me. Growing up around a bunch of boys had made him a little strange. Mika returned my wave with a smile.

"No Shino I will not go on a date with you."

"Aww how'd you know I was gonna ask."

I grinned, "Call it intuition."

"And you're just going to ignore me?" I glanced at Eugene, he looked positively peeved, he even had a little bit of an eyebrow twitch. Mika and Shino snickered a bit. Apparently the pink had been a hit.

"Whatever do you mean?" I put on my best innocent face but he was having none of it. Biscuit had arrived by that time, bless that guy. He Was a little on the chubby side with a kind face and scruffy brown hair that he kept mostly concealed beneath an army green cap; he wore a white scarf beneath his jacket.

"Biscuit! I was just getting up, you can take my seat."

The boy smiled at me in confusion, "Okay, thanks! Hey when do you wanna talk about the book some more?"

"Ah sometime before y'all leave okay? I have to run before that one," I pointed at a fuming Eugene, "decides to try and eat me."

"Oh gotcha, I find you later."

I gathered up everything and hurried away. While I walked I could hear Orga tell them about the details of the transport mission. I glanced back one last time, I liked when they were all smiling. It was a rare sight, it had always been.

Back in the mechanic bay I could hear the laughter from the boys. I shoved my hands into the pockets of my jacket and walked in with my best impression of Captain Haeda: grumpy like a cat out of the bath.

I stopped just long enough to see what they were laughing at: one of the boys was impersonating Eugene. He must have been pretty angry to have stomped around like an Earth ape.

"What's all of this laughter about?" They froze in place. Oh I'd never seen a bunch of boys so scared.

"Don't you know it's not right to impersonate your higher ranking peers?" they hung their heads in shame, a few of them brought their shoulders together.

I let the Haeda act drop, "You have to at least invite me to join in."

They smiled and started laughing at each other.

"Come on, we'd better get the pink ammo hidden before Eugene gets back"

"It's a good think he's such a bad shot when he's against Akihiro and Mika, otherwise we'd have pink Mobile Workers instead of patchy green ones." One of the boys admitted.

"Nah, I'd make sure that one was put with the First Army mechs." I assured them, "Only green for our pilots."

After that we got to work on the workers, the boys had managed not to get them beaten up too badly but there were a couple of low bolts to tighten. I let my mechanic crew take care of those. It was good to let them learn and get some confidence with the tools. That's what Nadi always told me. I ran through the checklist on the Ele-tablet while they worked.

After a few hours I dismissed them, they were cleaning up the tools when Nadi came to get me.

We had to go over all of the equipment the pilots would bring on the escort mission to Earth. I was not particularly looking forward to it. The five boys who would be going were the closest friends I had, they were going to be gone for at least a couple of months.

"Why the long face Ari?" Nadi's deep voice knocked me out of my thoughts. I looked up over the gun-arm of a Mobile Worker, a worries look was on his face.

"Just thinking about the escort mission, something doesn't seem right about it. I'm probably worrying about nothing though." I tried to smile but it wasn't real, and he knew it. Fortunately Nadi knew me well enough that he didn't press further. We worked in silence until the checklist was completed and everything was in prime working order.

I ran down the list once more when Orga walked through the hangar to Nadi. He nodded at me, I nodded and then returned to the list. I managed to catch their conversation though. The lady, Miss Kurdelia Aine Bernstein, was going to arrive at midday tomorrow; the crew would leave the next day. I wouldn't see any of them for five months after that. And that was if everything went right. Orga started talking about how the Third Army was often used as shields for the First and that this mission was no different. I heard nadi light a roll of tabacco.

"Those things will kill you Nadi. Secondary check is done, everything is in place for loading." I said while I walked over to them. It was an old argument between us. I knew he was never going to stop but it was a fun bicker match.

"Not before you give my old heart more than it can handle. You see how she treats me Orga? Its abuse, I should call someone about it."

Orga just smiled at us both. I half listened while they talked about the Whiskers most of the Third Army sported. The old man-machine interface system, also known as the Alaya Vijnana system, that allowed them to pilot the Mobile Workers without much training or education. It was an awful thing to do. Orga had ditched his jacket and I could see his own Whisker while they talked. I remembered when he and Mika had arrived, when they had to undergo the implant surgery.

Orga hadn't cried, I remember thinking he was being brave but now I knew better. He had been scared of what would happen if he cried, if he showed weakness in front of Mika. Didn't matter, he still got punched in the face for being "cheeky".

Nadi turned in for the night after the checks, Orga and I walked back to the bunk room in silence. It had become a nightly ritual for us ever since the men from the First began giving me trouble. That started maybe three years ago. We'd moved my bunk so that I was nearer to Mika and Biscuit, I didn't really mind but sometimes Orga would throw dirty shorts at Biscuit and I when we talked about books for too long into the night.

He also guarded me while I showered, not that I needed it but I'd learned to let the boys do what made them comfortable. I'd tried to stop them before but to no avail. Apparently having someone to protect made them feel like they had a job even when they were done for the night.

When I had gotten as clean as I would ever get, I changed into my night clothes and dragged my tired self to bed. I heard Orga go through a similar ritual, I was asleep by the time he returned to his bunk across the isle from mine.


	2. 2

Chapter 2

I woke up a little before dawn to beat the boys to the bathroom. In the mirrors over the sinks I saw a girl who looked like me; The same bright green eyes, freckles that ran across both cheeks and over her nose, and the same brown hair that never wanted to stay in a braid. She looked like me; she also looked like my father and mother, long dead and never coming back.

I had her eyes, Nadi had told me that once. I don't remember my mother, she died when I was in diapers and my father raised me until he died himself. I had his mouth, Nadi like to say that every time I got snippy with him about something.

There was a reason I didn't like looking in the mirror.

That day was going to be eventful. The lady, Kurdelia Aine Bernstein, was to come and greet her escort team. Orga would let the pilots know if they had been selected at breakfast that morning. Nadi and I were going to load the transporters with all of the equipment we had checked the previous night. After another check of course. Nadi always forgot something important, the more checks we did the less likely that was to happen.

I had already pulled my jacket on by the time the first wave of boys rolled out of their beds. They staggered, half awake, to the showers; not even noticing me on their way.

On my way out the door I noticed Mika and Akihiro's bunks were already empty. They'd probably already gone out on a run or whatever new exercise they cooked up. I looked at Orga, still asleep. It seemed like ten years had vanished from his face. It wasn't often that he slept so soundly, I decided against waking him up.

At breakfast it had been announced that Orga, Biscuit, Eugene, and Mikazuki would be the team to escort Miss Bernstein on the journey to Earth. They would be greeting her at mid-day and everyone was expected to be on their best behavior until they departed the next morning.

Nadi and Yamagi prepped the equipment for transport while I ran diagnostics on the First Army mechs. They, of course, were not as careful with the Mobile Workers as the Third Army was. At least three of the mechs needed repairs to their ground movement systems in addition to the usual refueling.

I called them dirty names in my head while I buried myself in the grease and wires of the mech systems. I had a couple of the boys work with me to learn how to fix problems like these; goodness knows they would happen often enough.

Everything was quite calm until a little after lunch. I noticed it first with the younger Third boys, they were talking about how beautiful a lady was. Then it spread through to the ranks of the First Army and I was pretty certain as to whom they were talking about: Miss Bernstein. It was cute when the younger boys talked about her but down right creepy when the old men talked about someone who was at least as old as me, if not younger.

"Alright guys, everything is fixed as it's going to get. Go wash up and make yourselves presentable for the Lady. She might be touring the base in her down time." They whispered excitedly amongst themselves, I could hear them until they were a good deal down the hall leading to the Third barracks.

I ran into Nadi on my way back to the Third hangar.

"Lady this and Lady that, sheesh you would think these kids had never seen a girl in their lives." He started. I could only smile at the old man.

"Did you hear? She even asked Mika to show her around the base. Poor thing."

"She probably thought he was a cute little kid." I know of a couple people in the First who had made that mistake. Some of them still had emotional scars from his tactless statements.

"Too bad she didn't take Biscuit"

"He would have been the best guide. Can you imagine if she'd taken Shino or Eugene?" I replied. Nadi laughed at the idea, the two were notorious for pining after girls. Biscuit would have some interesting stories after the mission was completed.

Something was not right. I couldn't shake the feeling that something was going to happen. Mika and Akihiro were gone again, Eugene was probably sulking somewhere, Biscuit was gone, and Orga wasn't in his bunk. Nadi had turned in early too.

I wandered around the base. It was eerily quiet, the soft starlight made the familiar buildings seem strange and somewhat Alien. I walked closer to the perimeter, where the bright guard lights drowned out the stars.

When I came to a deployment ramp I stopped and sat down on the ledge. My head rested on my knees as I took in the view. The barren landscape so scarred from practice battles and training drills was eerily beautiful. I must have been there, silently staring, for an hour before Orga showed up.

He had his own jacket half buttoned whereas mine was completely sealed to the cold Mars night. His small lantern grew brighter as he approached. It was strangely cheerful compared to the stark base lights and the eerie stars.

"I thought you would be asleep by now." He said as he took a seat beside me.

"I didn't say you could sit there." I grumbled at him.

"Too bad, you need to practice your tyrant game if you want to be as good as me." He grinned but I wasn't up for a bicker match with him.

"Something doesn't feel right." I said.

He leaned back on his hands, "Yeah."

The lightness was gone from his voice. He was looking at the stars, in a few hours he would be with them. And I would be here without anyone to pester.

"Promise me something?" I asked quietly.

"Hm?"

"Promise me you won't die."

He was silent for a while. Long enough that I began to get embarrassed about my statement. But then he looked at me and said: "I have no intention of dying yet. But I can't promise that."

"Right, it was a stupid childish thing to ask."

"Alright, I'll forgive it if you promise to knock Sasai's lights out next time he gives you trouble." Sasai was a creepy man in the First Army. He was captain Haeda's second in command and a true bully at heart.

"I happen to like living you know, if I attacked him I'd be as good as dead."

"Nah, Nadi would save you."

We laughed and then fell into silence.

Biscuit joined us after a while. The boy still wore his signature hat over his unruly brown hair.

"You guys can't sleep either?"

"Nope, bad feelings all around" I replied.

"Something's suspicious about the situation." Orga said.

"Yeah. Miss Bernstein is a bit naïve but she is an important figure. What she represents… Even Gjallarhorn could attack."

I thought about that for a moment while the boys continued talking. Gjallarhorn were the main peacekeepers after the great Calamity War roughly 300 years prior to the current time. They had historically carried out actions with Earth's interests in mind. If they decided Miss Bernstein was enough of a threat to the status quo, they could destroy her. No matter how good my friends were, they were no match for what the wealth of the organization could buy.

"Well, if it's a trap we'll just crush them," Orga grinned with a fierceness I only saw when he ran drills, it scared me a bit, "trap and all."

"Well mister scary man you can stay and talk about your strategies, I'm gonna head back. Nadi wants the mechanic crew up before dawn to make sure you guys leave on time." I hopped up and stretched a bit. I knew the two saw right through my brave face. They said nothing though.

I had only been walking for a minute when I saw it.

It rose over the buildings like a deathly specter. A white flare: Enemy spotted.

The ice in my chest stopped me, the hairs on my arms and neck raised all at once. Then, hours of drills melted everything and kicked my muscles into gear. I pelted toward the mech Bay.

I passed a young boy from the Third, he had seen the flare but was new, the swelling around his implant was still an angry red. He was frozen in fear, even in the dim light I could see his face was bone white.

I grabbed him by his shoulder, "it's okay to be scared but don't let it control you. Get to the barracks and make sure everyone is awake. We can't let whoever is attacking hurt our comrades."

He seemed to snap back to life, "Yes ma'am!" He saluted me and ran away. Brave kid.

Mikazuki and Shino beat me to the hangar. Akihiro was hot on my heels when I raced into the hangar. We didn't acknowledge each other as we set about to our tasks. They hooked up the adapters for the Whisker system and I opened the Hangar doors. My mechanic boys were running in half asleep when I had checked the fuel and ammunition for each mech. A headset was strung around my neck so I could hear what was going on outside.

"Out of the way, they're rolling out!" I barked at them.

"Prep the other mechs, ammunition and fuel if you see something wrong pipe up!" The kids fell in line like good soldiers.

Eugene burst into the hangar, shirt off. I had his adapter in hand by the time he got to his mech.

"I remembered to take the pink paint out." I grinned. We were both a little jittery by then, we grinned grimly at each other before I hooked up the adapter.

There was a boom followed by the whistle of a bomb.

"Incoming!" Someone shouted.

The world was on fire.

The enemy launched a barrage of missiles. Most of them fell outside of the perimeter, in the drill fields. A few landed on buildings. Some were close enough to shake the hangar.

"Any injured?" I called. Negative, no one injured in the blasts. Good, that would boost morale.

"Who's up top I don't want any of those mechs crashing into each other!"

"Ari, where's Orga? I can't leave without him."

"He's on his way. Your mech is fueled and prepped"

"Nadi, what's the situation at First Hangar?"

His deep voice crackled over the headset, "All set, everyone is fueled up."

Just fueled up? Why not moving out.

"Are they going to move out? What are they waiting on?"

"What's wrong Ari?" Eugene called from the cockpit of his mech.

"First Army hasn't moved out yet."

"What?!" He snarled.

My friends were already risking their lives while those First dogs were taking a nap. Orga chose that time to make his grand entrance. He stalked forward like a jungle cat. His shirt was gone, jacket tied at his waist, only his scarf covered his neck. Part of me wondered if he ever went anywhere without it.

A second barrage rocked the base but none of my boys called out for injuries. Good. They had found their rhythm and now little could shake them. All those mindless drills came in handy.

"What's the situation." Orga called, Biscuit was ready with the adapter by the time he got to the mech. On the map of the base there were multiple red dots to show where bombs had landed, at a glance I could see nothing vital had been hit. Mika's team was already out on the field; their mechs were green arrows moving slowly forward.

"You're late! Shino and Mikazuki have already deployed." Eugene shouted at him. Orga glanced at me, I must have been a sight to see with my hair unbound, headset on, Ele-Pad in hand.

"First Army has yet to deploy, no word on why. No vital buildings have been hit. No fires reported." I reported.

"Akihiro and others have set out from the second bay." I brought the pad over so he could see where our friends had deployed out. There were names beside each arrow now.

That was when First Army Captain Haeda strode into the hangar in all of his ostentatious glory. Todo, a high ranking officer who usually oversaw the Third Army drills, lagged behind him. Todo was light handed with discipline and a lesser evil we put up with from the First.

"What are you all doing?" he called out in his bullish, gravely voice. I crossed my arms at him; he looked at me in a way that made me want to scrub myself clean in a boiling hot shower. Biscuit moved to stand in front of me.

"You Third Army soldiers are all to attack the enemy head on."

"On who's order's" I spat at him, we were already deploying.

"President Maruba." He glared at me.

"Who is attacking us?" Orga asked, a little too sharply for Haeda's taste. He spit at the floor before Orga's feet .

"This is Shino, the Mobile Workers attacking us belong to Gjallarhorn!" Shino's voice came through over my headset.

"Did you all get that?" Biscuit and Orga nodded affirmative; Eugene had acquired his own headset from the cockpit by now.

"Why are they attacking?!" Orga shouted at the First Army soldiers. By now the work in the Hangar had slowed while the boys watched the exchange between the two Army Captains.

"Do you think I'm a psychic? How am I supposed to know!?" Haeda shouted back at him. I didn't like anyone addressing the Third Army Captain with such little respect. Especially Haeda.

Todo decided to get in on the conversation: "Why does it matter? Just deploy already!"

What did they think we were doing here? Twiddling our thumbs?!

Orga ignored him.

"What will the main force be doing while we charge the front?" He asked the flustered Haeda calmly. I caught the look the two First Army officers exchanged. I glanced at Biscuit: he saw it too.

"Basic pincer formation, we'll get the rear and crush them like bugs." Haeda replied. He would not meet the Third Captain's eyes.

I glanced back at Orga, he'd closed his right eye in annoyance. He wasn't buying any of their crap.

"Just hold them off until we crush them." The two turned to leave. Todo called out something after Haeda's order but I blocked it out. The battlefield was rough, we were losing too many people.

Eugene muttered something about them needing to deploy now, he close up the cockpit without any further questions.

I nodded at Biscuit, "Alright guys shows over! I want those fuel lines secured and the triage tent set up. We're gonna have wounded to take care of and I don't want any fires from those bombs going up!"

They called out "yes ma'ams" and hurried back to their tasks. They worked like a well oiled machine. They shouldn't have had to grow up like this but at least they had jobs and food.

Biscuit had taken my diversion to tell Orga about another Ahab reactor. The kind of power source used to run mobile suits. If there were any out on the battle field I wasn't sure if even Mika and Akihiro could handle them in the Mobile Workers. I did, however, have an idea about what could.

"Biscuit, Aurora. I need you both to do something." We nodded the affirmative.

"Nadi, how's that old generator heating up? Do you need any help?"

"No, Yamagi and I nearly have it back online. Biscuit just arrived with Miss Bernstein in tow."

Good, she was safe. Now they could focus on the mech in the generator room, an old relic from the Calamity War. If anyone could get it up and running, it was Nadi.

Orga's voice rang out over the headset: "Fall back Shino's team! We have reinforcements ready for you. Mika, Akihiro, you too. Ari has the resupply team ready."

I did. The team was se up behind a set of stockades. My friends had done a good job, nothing was out of place. The wounded were trickling in as well. Some had been pulled from the Mobile Workers after they had been shot up.

I glanced back at Orga, he looked like a war general on top of Eugene's mobile worker. He would likely stay there throughout the battle. A very bad habit that would get him shot one day. No matter how many times I told him, he still insisted on doing it.

One of the younger boys, Danji was his name, ran up to Orga's mech.

"There's a free mech! If you're short handed put me in."

Orga considered it for a moment before saying, "Go to Aurora, when Shino resupplies you'll be with him. No reckless mistakes."

The boy looked like he had been given the greatest gift in the world. He hurried over to me. I looked up at my friend, _is this really okay?_

He bowed his head, _it has to be, at least for tonight._

We nodded at each other. He and Eugene moved out onto the battlefield. The sun was just beginning to rise at this point.

Danji and his friend, a boy with blond and brown hair, Takaki was his name, approached me.

"Both of you, Shino will be move to the second supply team wait for him there. Takaki help out with the resupply team. Send one of them to triage."

"Yes!" They saluted and ran over to the indicated teams. Mika had rolled into the first one, Akihiro was at number three, I saw Shino rolling through the gate by then.

I walked calmly over to the triage to help where I could. First aid was a skill Nadi had taught me. I had made sure the Third Army knew it as well. One of the things first aid did not help with was the psychological toll of battle. There were a few kids who had tears running down their cheeks and snot coming out of their noses. One had his head in his hands and was on the verge of all out crying. I started over when I familiar boy, the one who had been frozen in the hallway, got to them first.

"It's okay to be afraid, but don' let it hurt your comrades. I need help with the bandages, can you cut them for me?" Good man. The crying boy nodded and followed him to where another soldier was bleeding from a cut along his arm.

"Aurora, we need you over here." I looked over to see a and unnatural angle in the lower leg of one of the soldiers. A couple of the boys with him were turning green at the sight of it.

"You two I need you to get me something for him to bite onto." The boy who belonged to the leg had already passed out from pain but he would wake up soon enough. There was another boy, closer to my age, handling him. He didn't even blink at the injury.

"You ever reset a bone?" He nodded the affirmative.

"Good get him spread out."

The boys returned with a wad of cloth. One of them had even thought to bring bandages and a splint.

"I know this is grisly, you can go help somewhere else if it too much."

I lost one of them but the other stayed. A red haired boy, the same age as Takaki and Tamagi. His name Ride Mass and he helped the other boy lay out the injured soldier.

"Aurora, where is the remote for the singal flares?" Biscuit's voice chimed over the headset. I replied automatically while I analyzed the fracture site there was only one break. We didn't have the luxury of the high grade medical equipment the city had so there was no way to be sure.

I lost track of time as I focused on the soldier.

"Ready? Setting in three, two…" I applied the pressure on one. The poor boy shrieked in pain but Ride and the other soldier held him down long enough for the splint to be set and stabilized.

"Ride, this is very important, I need you to watch him, get him water, if he gets too pale or if his heartbeat gets all fluttery, I need you to get one of us." I gestured to the other soldier and to myself.

Ride nodded, looking pale himself, "You did a good job bud. You were quite brave." He smiled and ran off for water.

From then on everything was a blur of injured soldiers and resupplying mechs. It sounded Like Orga had his hands full where he was too. The enemy forces were pressing in all around. Everyone was taking fire.

"Danji what are you doing?!" My eyes widened at the name.

"Danji what did I tell you about being reckless!?" I shouted into the headset. A scream sounded over the frequency, he must have gotten stuck. Someone get to him, he shouldn't even be out there!

"Sorry about that" Mika's voice chimed over the headset and I let out a breath I hadn't known I was holding in.

Orga relayed what was happening on the battlefield. They were getting hammered but they all held together. Wounded were being pulled from the mechs and brought back the the triage tent. One boy had his friend draped over his shoulder.

"Aurora save him please!" He cried desperately to me but his friend was long gone. The wound was in a place not many could survive. I tried to explain but the boy went into hysterics over his friend. He just kept doing chest compressions, screaming his friend's name.

"Stop it!" I said firmly in the quiet voice Orga sometimes used.

"He's gone, is this any way to honor him?" He teared up again, I put my hand on his shoulder, "This is a battle; if we stop fighting, even more of our friends will die. We need to keep that from happening."

He nodded.

"Go relieve someone on the resupply lines help where you can." She boy wiped the tears from his face, gave be a salute, and ran over to where a Mobile Worker had just stopped for a resupply of ammo.

"Orga!" Biscuit's voice came out over the headset once more.

"The First Army is fleeing with the President to the rear of the battle. Just as we thought they would. "

Those dogs were using us as human shields. Anger swept through me, hot as fire. It was strangely calming. I knew what was coming next.

"Biscuit, go for it."

I saw sets of red flares erupt in the direction the First was fleeing in. When I refueled the trucks the other day I noted the flares stored on the tops of the trucks. Because we suspected the First was going to turn tail we set up the remote detonation for them.

The morning had come but the flares were still bright enough to draw the attention of a good number of the enemy.

"Looks like we have our decoy. Good work Biscuit, Aurora."

"Time for us to fight back!" Orga called out.

Unfortunately, that was when the battle intensified.


	3. 3

Chapter 3

It was morning, the sun was bright and the sky was blue. Screams of the wounded were muffled by the blasts of heavy artillery. Biscuit had just remotely activated the signal flares on trucks being used by the First Army to flee through the rear of the battle field with Maruba, the president of CGS. They left the Third army to fend for themselves.

"Alright guys, time to launch our attack!" Orga called over the headset. It would have been a rallying call, had there not been massive explosions immediately after. I felt a sinking in my stomach. Deep down I was hoping Biscuit had been wrong about the Ahab Reactor, the power source for Mobile Suits. If those things got onto the battle field, there was no telling how many would be left dead or wounded in their wake.

"Nadi! How's it coming?!" I called into the headset. My voice raised an octave from my fear.

"Nearly there, we need a little more time!"

"Where did the heavy artillery fire come from?" Orga said.

I had finished with the latest wounded boy and raced to a better vantage point to see the battlefield. There was Orga, his white hair and red scarf made him easy to spot, maybe a little too easy when I thought on it. In the distance was an must more imposing figure, a Glaze mobile suit from Gjalllarhorn. It was dark green and deadly looking with a hidden cannon in what could be called the head, a gun for one arm and an axe gripped in the hand of the other.

My heart sank even more when it was joined by two more Glazes with the same deadly features. I could hear uncertainty in the voices of the pilots. Eugene was wavering, saying they could not win against the Moble suits in their much less powerful Mobile Workers. Poor Danji had lost his fighting spirit and I instantly wished I had never allowed him to leave in the mech. Shino was out possible paths and even Akihiro was struggling for ideas. I waited for Orga, he would know what to say. He always did.

"That's right" He began, "There's nowhere to run and there never was. We thought something like this might happen, right Aurora, Biscuit?"

I knew what he was going to do.

"Nadi! Mika is on his way to you!" Nadi was our head mechanic, my adoptive father, and my mentor. He was working on our hail Mary card. If anyone could get the old Mobile Suit that served as our generator working, it was him.

"Nick of time, we just got it online." Yes!

I saw Mika's mech race back through to the resupply area, "Mika, they're waiting for you in the generator room."

"Got it."

"Orga, the cards are lining up, just hold on a little longer."

"You too, Ari"

One of the Mobile Suits, the first one that had appeared was wreaking havoc across the battlefield. Our Mobile Workers were nothing but flies to him, he crushed each one that came close and there was nothing we could do about it. My friends were still working the triage unit and supply lines. There were boys running to carry wounded off of the battlefield. They worked efficiently and with purpose, something that had been drilled into them over long hours.

"Just hold on a little longer! We need to buy time for Mika!" Orga's voice rang out over the main com system of the base.

The Mobile Suit continued its assault on the base. One of the shells struck a tower, glass rained down over us but there were no major injuries from it. I felt a sting as a few chards laded in my arm, I cursed and set about getting the larger ones out. A few others were doing the same.

I heard Danji's outrage at the assault. I heard him scream at the pilot of the Mobile Suit. I saw that same Mobile Suit turn to the direction of the bullets Danji fired. My world stopped for a moment when Danji's Mobile Worker exploded. The Mobile Suit had merely kicked the mech away. The pilot had ended the boys life with the same casualness with which one would kick a ball.

Shino screamed Danji's name over the headset. Orga repeated his line to hold out for just a little longer.

"Orga, it's looking this way." Eugene's statement snapped my head back to the battlefield. The Mobile Suit had turned to face Orga and Eugene in their Mobile Worker. Its head split open to reveal a battlefield scanner.

"Guys, now would be a good time." I called out calmly; if we lost Orga, we would lose our organization.

Eugene dodged the cannon fire with skill I was sure Mika had drilled into him during practice fights. Orga's voice sounded out over the now quiet base, "I will not die. Not like this."

Eugene drove the mech behind a hill, forcing the Mobile Suit closer. I could see it clearly in all of its terrible glory.

"It cannot end here!" Orga continued. I watched the soldiers of the Third Army rally around the base. They were not going to give up either.

The Mobile Suit raised the battle axe above its head. Just when it reached the peak of its motion and began to descend to pummel Orga and Eugene into dust, something happened.

An explosion of dust burst from the hill before the Mobile Worker. At first I couldn't see anything, then I saw the mace, then the Mobile Suit that had lain dormant in our generator room. It swung the mace like a baseball bat into the enemy Suit, destroying it.

A visible wave of relief raced through he soldiers in the base. Most of them had stopped their jobs when the explosion had ripped through the ground. There was no need to make them resume. If Mika lost, they were all goners.

"Sorry to keep you guys waiting." I could hear the smile in Nadi's voice. I was sure he would have a few more gray hairs when I next saw him. Maybe I would too.

I looked back out on the battlefield. The pilots of our Mobile Workers had emerged from the cockpits to watch the fight and stare at the Mobile Suit before them, Unfortunately, the other two Suits that had been standing by had not liked that Mika took out one of their comrades. One of them fired up its thrusters and began its approach. Orga ordered everyone to stand down,

Mika moved in front of the retreating enemy forces. The Mobile Suits would be unable to fire while he was there, unless they wanted to endanger the rest of their comrades. The second enemy Suit tried to stop him before he could position himself but he was too late. The ground cracks and released plumes of dust whenever the Mobile Suits landed, making it a little hard to watch.

The Mobile Suit that had tried to cut Mika off now rushed him, Mika threw the Suit's mace toward the approaching enemy then… Vanished. Well he appeared to vanish. I found him again directly above the enemy. He used gravity an his own momentum to slice the blade arm of the enemy completely off. Now it was left with a rifle and a cannon it couldn't use. The remaining Glaze Mobile Suit used the dust kicked up by Mika to ambush him. Mika blocked the swing of the Glaze's axe just in time. It opened its head cannon to fire at close range. The blast would be completely absorbed by Mikazuki's Mobile Suit and not hit the fleeing enemy mechs.

But it hesitated.

Mikazuki used that moment to push in closer. The other Glaze moved to fire at him but Mika was too fast and he pushed away with a reaction speed that could nto have been possible without his Whiskers. A system that allowed the an uneducated pilot to control a Mobile Suit or Mobile Worker. Most of the boys on the base had at least one, Mika had three.

Something was wrong with his thrusters, they sputtered weakly like they were out of fuel.

Darnit Nadi! You always forget something!

Mika Managed to come to a stop and then used his Mobile Suit's mace to kick up a dust cloud for cover. The Glaze that had tried to fire at him before now rushed forward but Mika was faster. The Glaze stopped just in time and avoided a death blow. Mika's mace did manage to rip the helmet of the Glaze clean off. Before either of them could move, the other Glaze rushed in. when the dust settled down a bit I could see them making a retreat.

The line of retreating enemy Mobile Workers had gone, he was buying time for them, cheeky dog. I smiled at the enemy showing that he actually gave a care about the fate of his comrades, unlike our own First Army and President, abandoning us to die while they ran for the hills.

I half thought Mika would go after them but the old Mobile Suit suddenly shut down.

"Everyone, well done." Orga said over the main comm. We'd done it. We managed to stay alive and kick the enemy back. A cheer rippled through the soldiers both on the field and at the base.

"Well done, Orga." I said through the headset.

We were not stationary long. There were parts to salvage and wounded to rescue from the hulls of the downed Mobile Workers. Nadi had already gone out to get Mikazuki out of the old Mobile Suit cockpit.

I was making rounds with a sack of first aid supplies, my headset around my neck. I twirled the piece of chalk in my hand. It was my job to go through the salvaged parts and figure out what could be reused to fix out own machines and what could be sold as scrap. Nadi would be busy with the old Suit so I was in charge for a while.

Among the salvage and wounded were the mourning. Those who had lost friends in this battle could cry now that the fighting was over. I saw Shino crying over Danji and I felt a pain in my own heart that would only grow before the day let out. Takaki and Ride, two of the younger kids who had been friends with Danji, were doing their best. The boys were helping with the salvage jobs.

Back at the base I had the wounded who could walk help those who could not. They were to relocate to a more covered position to reduce the risk of dehydration.

I noticed Orga standing on one of the hills that overlooked the field of wrecked machines and bodies. His hands were balled into tight fists, I knew he was going to blame himself for everything, even thought it could have been much worse without his leadership.

I started up the hill to him. He noticed but did not move. I stood beside him for a moment before saying: "None of this is your fault."

"I know." He said quietly, his eyes were tight with the tears I knew he would not allow to fall.

"Look at all of those people who are alive because of you, and Mika, and Akihiro, and Shino, and Eugene. Everyone on that field, those who are moving as well as those who aren't, fought to protect their family. You helped them do that."

I noticed a scrape on his cheek.

"Now, let me get that think on your face."

"There are others who need it more than me."

"Orga," I said sharply, He paused to look at me, "This is something I don't need to think about to do. I don't have to think about the kids I saw die. Let me do this. Please." My voice wavered a little and he relented.

Akihiro arrived after a while with news of the First Army's return, the survivors at least. We had used the signal flares stored on the back of one of their escape vehicles as a diversion to pull the main force of the enemy away from us. They were not going to be happy when they returned.

Orga sighed and closed one eye in irritation. He nodded thanks to me and left for the confrontation we all knew was waiting for him. Captain of the First Army, Haeda, was likely not too pleased about being used as bait.

By the end of the day, the final body count was 42 from the Third Army and 68 from the First Army.

The dead were bound in linen and lined up out of the sun so they would not rot. When we were able to regroup a little bit, we would give them a funeral service. Well, it would mainly be for us. A way to recognize our loss and deal with it, then accept it and move on. Funerals were never really for the dead.

Orga, Akihiro, Eugene, Biscuit, and Shino had gone to face Captain Haeda an hour or so ago. I had scrap metal to comb through and mechs to fix and I did not want to think about what haeda's temper would make him do. I only hoped Orga and my friends could ride it out without conflict. We would deal with the First Army later.

Nadi walked into the bay while Tamagi and I were debating whether t save or scrap one of our mechs.

"Mikazuki came out of the cockpit okay?" I asked

"Yeah, that kid is one tough little monster. " Nadi sighed and took in the sheer amount of parts we had yet to pick through. He rubbed the back of his neck as if to work out an old ache.

"I'm just glad he likes us" I said. It was true, I was quite grateful that Mikazuki was on _our_ side.

"haha me too. I'm glad all of you are on our side. You kids gave battle veterans a run for their money."

"Tamagi, I heard you were more help than Nadi over there."

"Just barely, he helped out a little." Hearing those words out of the ever so quiet Tamagi made my day.

"It's not my fault I happen to be a fantastic teacher." He rubbed his nose and looked quite pleased with himself. Tamagi and I shared a look before breaking into laughter.

"What, it's the truth!" He grabbed the two of us. Unfortunately the atmosphere was ruined by a fellow named Haeda.

The First Army Captain stalked into the hangar with a lethal look in his eyes. There was blood on the sleeves of his jacket but no wounds on him. Something was wrong.

"Aurora Tantas! When I get my hands on you I'll-"

"You'll what?" Nadi asked in a deadly calm voice. I could not see his glare, but I could see Haeda's reaction to it. I had never seen the bulky military man deflate so quickly beneath a glare. He saw me and restarted.

"You knew those flares were on the trucks. The deaths of my men are on your hands."

"No Haeda, they're on Gjallarhorn's hands. Maybe even on your own. You abandoned us to be killed while you ran with your tail between your legs." I stood up straight and refused to drop his stare. No weakness before predators, that was how you died.

He held my stare for a while, I wanted to look away but my will held me in place. He broke first. Haeda turned to leave but stopped, "You're lucky you had Nadi watching your back, other wise you'd end up like your friend Orga."

I was dumbstruck for a moment, the blood on his sleeves. Orga's. What did he do. "What did you do?!"

He flinched a bit at my anger. I rushed past him, first aid bag already slung around my shoulder.

If he had beaten Orga, what had he done to the others? I would kill him myself if he harmed all of them. Not even Nadi would be able to stop me.

I followed the stream of boys back to where The First and Third Corp had met. Biscuit had just come outside when I barreled into him. I nearly knocked the boy over when I searched him for any signs of recent damage.

"Are you okay? Did he hit you?"

"I'm fine, I'm fine." He said quickly. I was on to Akihiro by the time he finished with the first "fine".

They were all free of injury from Haeda.

"geez Aurora, if all I had to do to get you that close to me was take a punch from Haeda, I'd have done it ages ago." Shino Joked. The tall boy was so furious he was shaking likely at the First Army, I didn't think he was alright with Danjis' death yet. Eugene was a little pale, battle shock most likely. Tall, study Akihiro was unmoved and left shortly after he declared he was fine.

I shifted my attention to Orga, who was on the ground, surrounded by splatters of blood. His blood. He looked slightly nervous from witnessing the anger I had arrived with.

I took a breath to calm myself, "You look like hamburger meat."

They all started to laugh at the anticlimactic reaction.

Orga coughed a bit, blood trickled down his chin. Probably a cut in his mouth from getting punched.

"I think I look pretty damn good for the beating I got. While you patch me up, we need to fill you in on a plan."


	4. 4

It was evening now. The sky was lit a beautiful gold that darkened as the sun descended. With the increasing darkness came a sort of stillness that only happens after a battle, or a great loss. It was as if the world itself was standing vigil for the soldiers. No, for the children who had given their lives to protect those they had come to see as family.

Our base was still scuffed and bruised from the numerous bombs the enemy had launched at us. The vantage point the hill we were built on allowed a nearly full view of the destruction. There were black craters, still smoking from long ago blasts. Smears of oil stained the Mars dirt like blood, marking where the Mobile Workers of both sides had fallen.

Our Mobile Workers that had escaped being completely destroyed were now lined up outside of their bays. Guns raised, they looked like spines for some ancient Earth beast. I sat upon the gun arm of one of those Mobile Workers, watching the sun and the boys who had survived. Our fallen were lined up outside of the base perimeter. Nadi would be holding a service for them in a few minutes. Boys were already beginning to fall in for the ceremony, to say goodbye to their friends one last time before Mars took them back.

Not all of the children had elected to go to the service; there was still a perimeter to guard after all. There was also a coup to be planned.

I listened in while Orga spoke of taking the base from the control of the First Army. He was a sight to see, bandaged and bruised from his run in with First Army Captain Haeda, but he still carried himself like a leader. Not everyone felt as confident about the plan as he did. Eugene was hesitant to go against their command, as usual.

"How could we ever be able to take all of them on? It's plain crazy!" He said nervously.

"You've played with the idea before, is it really so strange to consider it now?" Orga said, his hands were on his hips in his usual fashion. He had one eye on Eugene.

"I have but in this situation? We were just attacked! The Third lost so many people," he made what could be interpreted as a pleading motion.

"President Maruba, and the guys in the First, they're worse than scum." He looked at each of the boys before him, Shino, Biscuit, Eugene, then up at Akihiro and me, "They used us as shields so they could escape with their lives. They only think of us as tools to be used and then tossed away. When they leave, so will the business. They'll take on the dangerous assignments and we'll be killed."

"If we leave here, there are no jobs for kids like us." Biscuit said.

"So we have no other choice but to have a coup." Eugene relented.

Orga looked at Akihiro. The stern boy sat above me, atop the hatch of the Mobile Worker's cockpit.

"What will you do Akihiro?" Orga asked?

He considered it for a moment before standing up, saying: "We're the Human Debris of Mars. We're not here of our own free will. I'll follow who ever is in charge of this place." He looked up at the burnt gold sky for a moment, "Whether its them or you guys."

He walked away, leaving me alone on the mobile worker. Orga's yellow eyes fell on me now. Something had changed in them, I couldn't quite put my finger on it.

"What will you do Aurora?"

The rest of the boys looked up at me too. I weighed my options. I was definitely not going to leave with the First Army, especially with Haeda's threat from before. I was not an adult yet so I couldn't apply for a business license to open my own mechanic shop. Nadi wasn't about to leave either.

"I'll follow you Orga," His shoulders relaxed a little bit, "but you'd better not lead us into a death trap."

That got a few smiles out of their somber faces. Orga shoved his hands into the pockets of his cargo pants and nodded, "No promises, but I'll do my best not to."

Eugene stepped forward now, hands on his own hips like how Orga had stood before, "Now that it's decided, let's have a strategy meeting."

"What about Mikazuki, what does he think?" Biscuit asked.

"Oh! I forgot." Orga rubbed the back of his head.

"How could you forget?" Shino muttered quietly, I had to agree. It was a little unlike him to forget about Mika like that.

"If Mika isn't on board, then I'm sorry but we'll cancel and find another way."

"What" Eugene asked

"Orga!" Shino and I said at the same time.

"Not that it'll happen." Orga turned to look at the sky

"If he know's I'm serious about it, Mika will agree with it."

After a while they all went their own ways. Biscuit's sisters had hitched a ride into the base on our delivery truck so he was off to help them store away the food and prepare dinner. He was such a good cook; I was more than a little excited.

I was thinking about this when I jumped down from the Mobile Worker's gun. I didn't notice Orga still standing there, watching me.

"What's up?" I asked.

He opened his mouth then reconsidered what he was going to say, "Do you know where Mika is?"

I nodded and pointed out toward the old Mobile Suit he had piloted to protect us all, "He took a fuel truck out there earlier, He's probably still there if he hasn't started driving back already."

Orga thanked me and moved to walk by before he stopped. Before I could ask what was wrong he suddenly moved a hand to my face, catching me completely off guard. He moved a calloused thumb over my cheek, then caught my confused look. "You had some dirt on your face." He said with a grin and showed me a streak of grime that had come off on his hand.

I grimaced at him, "Don't act strange like that. I thought something was wrong with you."

I walked away from him and headed out toward the small group of boys gathering around Nadi. When I was sure he was gone I moved my hand to my cheek, I could still feel his hand there. I felt a warmth start in my chest before I snapped out of it.

Gah!

I was being so dumb!

I had a job to do and this was no time for whatever _that_ had been. I pushed Orga out of my head in time to listen to Nadi go through the simple speech he had written for the kids.

The ceremony was short, as it should have been. Nadi said a few kind things about bravery and sacrifice. The kids who had gathered finally cried when he finished. We all helped dig graves for them after; it went quicker with all of the kids. The work seemed to help them out, comfort in familiarity and all that stuff.

Nadi and I were sitting on a hill outside of the base, looking at the stars like we did when I was younger. Neither of us knew the constellations so we would make up pictures for each one. That didn't happen this night.

"Do you remember, the day I found you in the alley? After your father died from that big sickness?" Nadi broke the silence that had fallen over us.

There had been a plague sweeping through the poorest neighborhoods. Dad just had to help everyone. If there was anything he could do for someone, he'd usually do it. Ended up getting himself killed for it.

"Yeah, I thought I was going to die that day."

"Mm, you almost did after that." Those first few days on the base were a blurr of color. I must have been in pretty rough shape.

"What brought this on? Are you wishing you could reconsider your decision?" I tried to joke but it fell a little flat.

"Only sometimes, like when you taught Yamagi to talk back."

I laughed, "What can I say, I'm a good teacher."

He laughed hard at that. To the point where I got a little suspicious.

"What!?"

"No, no, you're fine. How else would I have a small army of tool boys without you?" I still pouted a bit.

"No, I was thinking about how you kids really took charge. I was down with the Suit but I heard the boys talking about you. I think you may have a little following like Mikazuki at this point."

"Oh." I said, a little embarrassed at the idea, "I only did what you taught me to do. If anyone deserves credit, it's you."

"Hmm." We sat there longer, it was strange how normal this felt. As if there hadn't just been a giant battle that morning. As if we had not lost so many people. No matter how bad out situation was, Mars did not care. It would continue to spin whether we were there or not, life would go on. It was sobering to put our struggles into perspective like that.

Dinner was a little livelier than I expected. Only the Third Army was present by then, apparently the First Army had deigned the pavilion to be too beneath them. All the better for Orga's plan.

Biscuit was helping Atra out in the kitchen. I nodded to him when we arrived. He nodded back. His two little sisters, Cookie and Cracker, were running around with the stew. They were enthusiastic little things, long brown hair similar to that of their brother, the same happy eyes and easy smiles. I think they were a part of the lightened atmosphere.

The lady, Miss Bernstein was there as well. I was pretty sure the twins had conscripted her into helping out with the food prep. She seemed pretty nervous about it. It must have been hard for her to be in a place she had no experience with. I remembered Nadi saying she had tried to help out when he was putting the suit together. She looked nice enough.

She wore a long sleeved off white shirt and baggy pants. Her hair was pulled back into a rather long ponytail. The older boys were looking at her as if they had never seen a girl before.

"They should stop staring so hard, they'll pull something." I muttered as I spooned a bit of stew into my mouth. Nadi looked at the boys and laughed.

"You can't blame them, she's a new sight. They'll calm down soon."

"E-excuse me." I heard a soft voice behind me. When I turned around I saw Miss Bernstein. She was looking at the ground as if she were shy or embarrassed, I couldn't decide.

"What's up?" I asked.

"Are you Aurora Tantas? I was told you were one of the mechanics here."

"That's me," I wiped my hands on a napkin, "What can I do for you?"

Nadi looked on in amusement. A couple of the boys were watching the two of us with large eyes. Did they think I would eat her or something?

"Oh nothing, nothing!" She held up her hands, "I. I heard about what you did last night and this morning and I just wanted to introduce myself and say hello."

I stood up and held out my hand, "Nice to meet you Miss Kurdelia."

She blinked at my hand for a moment and then clapped her hand in mine, "Same to you Aurora."

Out of the corner of my eye I noticed Biscuit leave with Shino and Eugene. They were taking dinner to the people in he First tonight.

"Do you need any help with the food? I'm no good at cooking but I make a good dish washer!"

I left Nadi to his own devices and started on the dishes. One by one the boys filed out for the night. A couple of them said shy goodbyes to Kurdelia, it caught me off guard when a few of them saluted me. I returned them of course.

I left when Biscuit returned with Eugene and Shino. Bscuit stayed a while longer but the other two ran to catch up with me. We walked in silence for a while until the cheerful light of the pavilion was long behind us.

"Did any of them even look the least bit sorry?" I asked.

"A couple did. Most of them gave us glares when we passed by." Shino answered. He had not taken Danji's death well, there hadn't even been a body to bury when they combed over the wreck of his Mobile Worker.

"Karma has a way of coming around though. I'm sure Orga'll make sure of that." Eugene said confidently.

"How long until everything happens?" I asked.

Eugene thought for a second, "Biscuit said the sedatives should kick in about an hour eating. They were already all in their bunks so nothing should tip them off."

That would mean we had a few minutes left before the First Army was out cold. When that happened we would have to be quiet to avoid catching the attention of the rest of the Third, let alone the First Army.

"Do you have a place in mind?"

"Yea there's an equipment room just down the hall that should be large enough for all of them" Shino answered.

"Quiet guys." Eugene shushed us. We were near the hallway where the First Army bunkers were. The doors were open, they didn't expect anyone to come in and mess with them. After all, who would expect a bunch of space rats to mess with the big dogs of the base?

We set to work. I would tie their thumbs together with black ties Shino had swiped from the maintenance bays. It was more effective than tying the wrists together without the risk of cutting off circulation. If they wanted to get loose they would have to break their thumbs to do so.

Biscuit arrived by the time we got to the second set of bunks. I was a little jealous that they got two rooms while we were made to sleep in a converted bay. It took all three of the boys to move captain Haeda. The man certainly did not skip any of his meals, lucky for us.

Mikazuki appeared when they had finally managed to move Haeda into the equipment closet. No one made a sound until the door was closed and we were in a separate hall.

"I can't believe that worked!" Shino and Eugene laughed nervously, the adrenaline kicking in.

"you ready Mika?" I looked at him, he was fiddling with something in his pocket.

"Yeah, can you help me put this on after?" He showed me a pretty black bracelet. I had a good idea as to who it had come from. I remembered seeing Atra, a girl who worked at the grocery we bought food from, talking to Nadi. It was pretty obvious that she had had a crush on Mikazuki for a while now.

"Of course Mika." I smiled at him.

"Thanks." He offered a small smile in return. he seemed so innocent and young, not at all like someone who could pilot a Mobile Worker, let alone defeat a glaze with an ancient Mobile Suit. Just thinking of all of the parts that could be salvaged from the downed Glaze made my hands itch.

I didn't notice that Mika had a gun until Orga showed up. He looked cold, distant, like a military leader. Someone very different from the Orga I grew up knowing.

"Mika, why do you have a gun?" I asked gently. Eugene, Biscuit, and Shino looked down.

"Orga asked if I could do it, if it came down to that." Mika looked up at me, "If I think it's the best way I'll use it. If there's a better way I won't. Promise."

"Okay." I did trust him more than the others to not let his emotions get the better of him. I still didn't like that Orga had asked this of him.

"Don't become like them Orga." The mask didn't move a bit.

"Mika I can tie the bracelet for you tomorrow morning if you want."

"Okay!"

Now I knew why he'd made a point of asking me to tie it after the confrontation.

He didn't want to get blood on it.


	5. 5

I made sure to get an early start the next morning. I heard about what had happened in the equipment room the night before from Biscuit after the guys had come back. Orga and had not spoken about it and I had no desire to hear people talk about death like it was a good thing.

Something about what happened to Haeda and Sasai did not seem right to me. Yeah they were not the best of guys but, darnit they were people. I had known Mika would use the gun. There had been no point in convincing myself otherwise. They had abandoned us to die. We were outgunned until Nadi had worked his magic on that old Mobile Suit, Barbatos he called it. Was that any different from Haeda being tied up?

Machines were easier to understand: they worked or they did not. They did not make you feel conflicted. They did not take out their anger on other people.

I was working on one of the Mobile Workers that had been trucked up from the battle field. It was in decent shape but one of the gun arms had to be removed. There was enough scrap that I could cobble together a replacement by the end of the day. Okay I could do it if the circuitry was not shot. I hated to admit it but the little electronics and wires were beyond my skills.

I had finally managed to remove the larger broken parts of the arm and had started in on the smaller bits. A tag of metal was twisted beyond repair, rather than getting a proper tool I tried to pull it off with my bare hands; like an idiot I might add.

It did not work of course. My hand slipped and a jagged bit of metal opened up my palm. I swore and slammed my other hand on the body of the mobile worker, all it did was hurt my hand.

I swore again, it made me feel better so I added another one in for good measure. I looked down at the gash on my palm: it would leave a scar. My hands were so covered in scars from working on the machines without wearing gloves that it was hard to pick out where one started and another ended.

"Ari." I looked up to see Mikazuki waiting in the doorway.

"Hey Mika, I didn't hear you."

"You're bleeding." He stated.

"Yeah, I made a dumb mistake." He had already gotten one of the first aid kits by the time he walked over.

I let him clean the gash, the sting of antiseptic helped clear my head a little bit.

"I don't think less of you because of what happened in the Equipment room."

"I know," He looked up at me and smiled, "It was the best way to keep other people safe."

I smiled back, "I'm just sick of people dying. That's all."

He nodded.

"Thank you Mikazuki. Do you still need help with the bracelet?"

We worked on the gun arm together for a while until he left on some errand. I was grateful for the company. Mikazuki was less complicated than other people tended to be.

The base had woken up by then, Nadi came in with an entourage of tool boys. We waved at each other. He sent the boys off on various assignments before walking over to me.

"How long have you been here? That mech's arm was pretty screwed up." He was looking over the patches Mika and I had put in.

"Since before the sun came up. Mika stopped by and helped out. It wasn't too far gone and he left after plugging into the system to make sure everything was working out." I tried to hide my bandaged hand but I knew he saw it. Bless him for not saying anything about it.

"Good work."

I nodded to the boys, "How are they doing?"

"As good as they're going to be for a while."

"Are you going to leave like the rest of the adults?"

He coughed a bit, "you don't dance around the big questions do you?"

I stared at him. If he left I would lose the closest thing I had to a father. He would not dare leave me, or the rest of the kids here to fend for ourselves.

His expression softened, "Of course I'm staying."

"Good." I looked out at the yard in front of the bay. Barbatos had been moved there after Mikazuki refueled it, the Ahab Generator it carried was hooked back up to our base again. It looked a little scuffed but otherwise fine.

"What are you gonna do with it now?"

Nadi turned toward the old Mobile Suit. It was very much a different beast than the Grazes. They appeared similar, except for the paint job that is, and resembled the human figure to a degree. Barbatos had a more defined head that looked like a samurai helmet rather than an old army helmet like the Graze models. I had failed to notice the missing shoulder armor during the fight, I was pretty sure Yamagi and I could work out how to fit it with armor salvaged from Gjallarhorn's downe Graze.

"It needs a tune up in the cockpit," He glanced down at me. He was so tall my head barely came up past his chest. I remember being younger and sitting on his shoulders while he showed be how to fix some part of a mech the ground looked so far away.

"Takaki and Yamagi can help me out with that, _you_ ," He wagged a finger at me, "need to eat something and take a nap before I let you lay a finger on Barbatos."

I tried to snap out something witty but my stomach ruined the moment with a loud growl. It was not a battle I would win, especially when my own body was against me. So I admitted defeat and retreated.

Of course, the only quiet place on the base was the generator room, vacant by then. It had previously been where Barbatos was stored, its twin Ahab Reactors tapped to power the base. By then it was just another empty hangar.

There were still cables lying where Yamagi and Nadi had dropped them the day before. A little light from the sun trickled in through the bay doors Mika had forced Barbatos through the day before.

I sat down on the concrete shelf that had served as a blockade to keep people from getting too close to the hydraulics of the Suit's bay. The bits of metal and gathered dust did not bother me; I was too tired at that point. What did bother me was how easily my friends could take the life of another.

I rested my head back on my hands and looked up and the blue sky through the blasted bay doors. I guess if it was for the good of the group, killing was okay. Orga had not ordered Mikazuki to kill everyone, only Sasai and Haeda. It wasn't as if society would feel their loss too deeply.

 _Then again_ , I thought before I finally drifted off, _would society feel the loss of any of our lives_?

There was something warm on my head. The feeling woke me up enough that I realized how sore my hip was from napping on hard concrete. I nearly moved before I realized it was Orga sitting beside me, one of his hands rested on my head. So that's what woke me up.

I opened one of my eyes just a fraction of a millimeter. He seemed lost in thought at that moment. Of course the only time he'd ever let his guard down was when he thought no one was conscious to see it.

"Maruba took nearly everything when he turned tail. We only had enough funds to operate for another three months max. And Biscuit was being generous when he said that."

Ah, so that was it. He was worried about money.

"There's been talk of giving Kurdelia up to Gjallarhorn and begging their forgiveness." There was anger in his voice. I opened my eyes fully.

"That's not who we are, that's what a coward would do. I don't want to be the one who sells out our clients to save our skin."

"It's a good thing we have a leader who's not like that then." I said. He removed his hand and I shifted into a sitting position. My head barely reached his shoulder even when we were sitting down. It was funny to think we had ever been the same size. A long time ago.

"They'll follow you, Orga. We all will." I shot him a cheeky grin, "Akihiro and I will just knock your lights out if you do something stupid."

He gave me a halfhearted grin and opened his mouth to say something else when the alarm siren went off. We froze and looked at each other for a moment, _Gjallarhorn? This soon?!_

"Lookout reporting one Gjallarhorn Mobile Suit approaching." There was a pause, "It's, ah, well it's got a red cloth with it too."

We were moving from the moment Gjallarhorn's name came through. Worried shouts echoed through the halls to us as boys rushed to see what was going on. They came from the direction of the battlefield.

I could not see it at first; the mobile suit was barely a dot on the horizon. It's pilot had emerged and seemed to be waiting for us to assemble. Orga and I had caught a ride on a passing truck; we picked Biscuit up along the way. The boys who could walk on their own were assembled around the truck, Nadi stood with Takaki, Tamagi, and Ride, while Mikazuki was off to one side.

We had passed the Barbatos on the way over. Nadi had worked quickly to outfit the Suit with the shoulder armor of the fallen Graze. It looked like he had barely finished when the siren called out, some of the welding equipment hung off of the mech like vines.

Biscuit had just come from a meeting with the accounting guy who had been forced to stay on site. Even though he had chosen to leave he had cooperated with them up to that point. He was on the top of another truck with Todo, who had, for some reason or another, chosen to hang around. I would bet my last cent that he was the one who brought up the idea of surrendering Kurdelia.

"It's a challenge," I heard Nadi say to someone, "That's how they used to settle conflicts during the Calamity War: a one on one duel."

Before he could say anything else, the Gjallarhorn pilot addressed us, "I am Crank Zent of the Front Line Troops. I wish to fight one on one with a representative of your choosing." Everyone looked at Mikazuki.

"If I win, I demand the return of the captured Graze," Nadi and I exchanged a glance, "as well as the surrender of Kurdelia Aine Bernstein t the custody of Gjallarhorn."

Todo yelled something about being right but the pilot drowned him out, "When the duel is settled and the graze and Miss Bernstein are in our hands I will ensure that there is no further conflict between our organizations."

What kind of conditions were those? I looked back at Orga. He'd crossed his arms in disapproval. Many people began talking at once about Kurdelia and what would happen if they got a hold of her.

"Enough!" The chorus fell silent, "I will go, there does not need to be anymore meaningless conflict. If I go with him everything will settle down correct?"

Todo called for negotiations for money if there was a peaceful exchanged. Orga cut him off, "We don't know what will happen if we hand you over to them."

"Remember, they tried to kill you not too long ago." Biscuit added quickly.

Kurdelia held up a hand, "I don't plan on just rolling over and dying. I will try to find a way to have them hear me."

Biscuit did not like the sound of that, he and Todo argued about the likelihood of Gjallarhorn actually listening. I agreed with Biscuit that it was a slim shot and probably would end up failing.

"You said you'd stop me from doing something stupid right?" I realized Orga had spoken to me alone.

I nodded.

"I'm not going to hand her over." He said in a louder voice, "We can't trust that man's words that everything will magically get better."

He turned to Mikazuki who had likely tuned out the conversation entirely, "Mika!"

"What?"

"Can you do it?"

"Okay." Just like that, no hesitation. Mikazuki would kill that man because Orga had determined it was the best way to protect all of us. And I agreed.

Yamagi rigged up a loud speaker from the comm system in one of the trucks. It squealed a bit with feedback when Orga picked it up. Nadi, Mika and I were already on our way back to where Barbatos was stationed when Orga gave the confirmation of the duel. I glanced over at Mika but he seemed as unmoved as ever.

"Sorry I missed out on the upgrades, what else did you manage to do to the mech?" I asked.

Nadi braked to a skidding stop in front of Barbatos, "Not much, we were running a system optimization when the siren went off. That and the armor is all we managed."

It would have to do. Mikazuki could handle it. I hoped.

There were boys gathered around the base of the Mobile Suit yelling encouragement to Mika. I shooed them out of the way and ran to disconnect the power cables from the Ahab reactor. Nadi was up at the cockpit with Mika. I waved to get his attention and gave a thumbs-up. Everything was disconnected, he was clear.

"Back up!" We shouted to the soldiers nearest to the mech. They hurried to make a gap for the Suit's thrusters to fire up. The resultant gust of wind made me wish I had not left my jacket back in the generator hangar. Orga yelled words of encouragement up to his old friend, the younger boys quickly followed suit. Soon nothing could be heard over the chorus of shouts and whistles.

After he was gone everyone piled into the remaining trucks to rush out to see the duel. They would be fighting on the old battlefield where, just the other day, we had collected the bodies of our fallen. Even the oil stains of the shattered mechs had not yet faded.

Orga, Biscuit, and Kurdelia stood out at the front of the ledge, I hung back to watch from the truck. My legs dangled over the sides, Tamagi and I shared a pair of binoculars. Around us the boys watched anxiously, some had climbed up top with us to try for a better view.

The two Mobile Suits stood like statues against the purple and pink sky. It would have been beautiful if not for what we stood to lose. The best way for us to succeed was for Mika to kill that pilot I understood that. Regardless of my feelings about death and killing this was the only way for my friends to be safe. Orga had made the right decision. I had to trust him.

The Graze moved suddenly, Tamagi and I jumped at the same time. Both Suits fire dup their thrusters but it was the enemy who closed first. He and Mikazuki locked weapons, the aftershock sent waves of dust up around them. Mika struck repeatedly but the Graze's shield held out. After one such exchange the enemy swung his battle axe up only for it to be caught on the pole end of Mika's mace. It seemed to be another stalemate until Mika brought the leg of his mech up into a kick that shoved the enemy back a few hundred meters.

He paused there a moment, I could feel Yamagi tense up beside me. Mikazuki burst forward and brought his mace down on the Graze. This time the shield was no match for the force behind the blow and it shattered, leaving the enemy wide open. They went back and forth again and again and it looked like Mika was going to win. The Graze was losing ground but kept up with the barrage. Mika charged again but the enemy pilot sacrificed the arm of his Graze in order to catch the mace. He swung the battle-axe around but Mika managed to avoid it. The pole end of the mace was ripped clean off.

The metal swung into a high arc, I did not need binoculars to know where it would land, "Incoming!" I yelled.

Orga did not so much as twitch when the broken pole impaled itself into the dirt a mere handful of meters from where he was standing. I smiled to myself, _cocky jerk_.

"Look!" Yamagi brought my attention back to the fight. Mika was caught by the Graze, then something happened. The mace doubled as a pile driver, sending a spear straight through the center of the mech. The fight was over. Mika had won. I let Yamagi have the binoculars. I did not want to watch a man be killed even if he was our enemy.

We gathered in one of the open yards, away from the assembled mobile workers. Mika had piloted the Barbatos back to the maintenance bay and in the morning a team would go out to salvage the Graze. We might even be able to cobble together a functioning Mobile Suit between the two wrecks.

Mika was surrounded by a group of admiring boys, Takaki and Ride included of course. Of course the mood did not last for long.

Todo was the first to break it, "What have you done Mikazuki!"

He arrived flanked by Eugene and Shino. Of course Shino seemed to just be following them, he looked quite confused at the outburst, especially when Eugene joined in.

"yes, do you realize what you've done?! We were so close to getting Gallarhorn off our backs!" He exclaimed.

"Who cares? He won!" Shino said good-naturedly.

"That's not important! We could have raked in the cash if we had turned the Lady in to them." I narrowed my eyes at the man. Something about Todo was beginning to irk me by that point.

"Excuse me." Kurdelia's voice rang through the yard. Todo's face went white when he saw her. She had traded her fatigues and long sleeved shirt for a red dress fit for a diplomat. Her maid followed behind her.

"I would like to continue the escort mission. To Earth that is. Would you be willing to continue with the job as well?"

All eyes were on Orga and Biscuit. They said nothing so Miss Kurdelia continued, "You would be able to stay in business for a while, I have a backer who will be able to provide funds to cover the expenses of the trip."

"A backer?" Biscuit asked.

"Yes, he has supported me as a sponsor in the independence movement. His name is Nobliss Gordon."

Biscuit made a choking noise, the man must have been important. Orga of course had no idea what the name meant.

"Who's that?" He asked bluntly.

"I've heard of him. He's some super rich guy." Todo growled.

There were excited murmurs through the crowd. The boys were not afraid of Gjallarhorn even though we had lost so many friends to them. Miss Kurdelia had given them hope.

I looked to Orga. He had also been watching the reactions around us. He turned back to face Miss Kurdelia and smiled. With a bow he said, "Thank you for the continued employment. We Tekkaden will ensure your safe journey to Earth."

The name caught me off guard. Tekkaden. Iron Flower. How had he come up with that one? Maybe he was secretly a poet. Oh I was going to tease him so hard about it.

I was not the only one confused by the name. When asked, Orga replied that it would be the name of our new company rather than continuing to operate under the banner of CGS. Shino was all for it with his usual infectious enthusiasm, soon the other boys were as well. Well, except for Eugene who yelled about Orga being a tyrant and not consulting anyone else on the title. Unfortunately for him, Mikazuki approved of the name and it stuck.

From then on we would be called Tekkaden: the iron flowers that would never wilt.


	6. 6

Iron flowers; the ones that will never wilt. I twirled my wrench through my fingers as I sat on one of the less beat up mobile workers. It had been a few days since they had seen any action and we had made good headway with all of them. I looked over at the crew of older boys performing checks on the cleared mechs. One would run through the system while he other would run down the list, the only reason they could figure out what the words meant was because they had memorized them after looking at them for so long.

Maruba hadn't seen the point in teaching a bunch of kids how to read. My jaw clenched and I stopped twirling the wrench. Nadi and I worked with what we could and some of them knew a few words but it was nothing like a real classroom with lessons and a teacher.

I sighed: just another thing to work on.

Our base was still a mess from the artillery fire we took. The watch tower still had a chunk taken out of it, rubble littered the ground, a few of the fences still had holes. The boys didn't seem to notice, most of them were so focused on their jobs that the mess wasn't even on their radar. Even soldiers like them were still just kids at heart.

"Ari!" Nadi's voice rang over the courtyard. I looked over to where he and Mikazuki were working on the Barbatos: he was waving me over.

"Yamagi," His blue eyes met my green ones, "You're in charge over here, 'kay?"

He nodded and turned back to the wires he was reconnecting.

Shino was just walking out of one of the bunkers; a group of the younger boys followed him. He had been in charge of physical training before the takeover; I guess some things didn't change. We nodded hello.

I jumped down from the Mobile Worker. I grabbed the jacket I had draped over the back leg support. CGS stood out in bright white against the dark green fabric. I picked at it, the ink Maruba had ordered for the lettering was cheap and peeled off easily. There was a print screen somewhere in the base for when the lettering had to be redone, usually one of the younger boys had to do it. Even I had done it for a while, back when I had been too weak to do anything useful in the garage.

I tied the jacket around my waist and headed Nadi's way. The Barbatos had taken a beating in the fight against that Gjallarhorn Graze, most of the armor was dinged up, the shoulder guards needed to be replaces, and the Ahab reactors needed to be synced up. I put my hands on my hips, how they heck was this pile of junk supposed to make it in outer space. It said a lot about Mika's piloting ability that he was able to use such an old thing.

"What's up Nadi?" I called when I walked up. The Graze was crumpled beside Barbatos; it looked more salvageable. I automatically started a list of what could and could not be saved and what could be used from the other Graze. Nadi interrupted me when I was halfway done.

"What do you think of them?" He nodded toward the two Mobile Suits. At least the Barbatos was standing. I was half expecting something to spark and fall off of both of them.

"I think," I put my hand on his shoulder, "it's a darn good thing that Tekkadan has you as a head mechanic."

He laughed at me. Mika poked his head out of the cockpit in confusion before hiding again.

"What's the first thing you would do with that Graze?" He inclined his head toward the mech. What would I do?

"Make sure the system was still operational, that the Ahab reactor was viable. Then I would have the system spit out a list of what was wrong and work from there. There are probably a couple armor pieces that could be cannibalized from the other Graze."

"Good, get started on it."

"What?" I asked blankly.

"That's your responsibility. Get started. Tekkadan still has to escort Miss Bernstein right? They're going to need at least one suit that's space-ready."

I jumped up and hugged him before he could say anything more. Mobile Workers were on thing, a Suit. A Mobile Suit. This was such a step up.

Takaki chose that moment to walk up.

"Is there anything I can help with?"

I smiled at him.

Takaki was pretty good at working with the machines. In under two hours we had a more or less complete diagnosis for the Graze's problems. We were much better off than Nadi and Mika, I heard more than one swear word from his direction.

Yamagi eventually joined us. He had left the older boys to the Mobile Workers so he could do the interesting stuff. I was torching off a particularly twisted bit of armor, using gloves this time, when Orga and Biscuit came by.

They had been in a planning meeting with Miss Kudelia, Eugene, and Todo. Todo had been lurking around the Mobile Workers earlier. He reminded me of a rat but he seemed harmless enough. I really wanted to shave off his stupid little mustache though.

I caught the gist of the conversation while I worked the broken bit off. Nadi didn't know if he could get Barbatos space-ready. Mika didn't seem too concerned about it.

"Ari!" I heard Orga's voice. I popped my head over the side of the Graze, "What's your estimate for this one?"

I thought for a second, "With help hauling parts from the other Graze? We could have it done in two days."

He nodded. It looked like there was something he wanted to say but he stopped and turned away. A flood of the younger boys came in with a truckload of parts and distracted me. Orga was gone by the time I looked up again.

I was a good mechanic but there were things even I couldn't do, like work with the computers on the cockpits. I had been able to help with the installation of the interface but when it came to the fine-tuning, that was something only Tamagi could do.

"I'll be back in a bit." I called to them.

"Is there anything else you would like us to do, Miss Aurora?" Takaki asked.

"Yamagi has the complete list but other than getting this guy up and fixing his broken bits we just have to attach thrusters and re do his nano-laminate coat."

Takaki's head seemed to steam at the list. I guess it was rather long.

"But don't worry, we have a few days. And we've already made good progress." I looked over at Nadi, Yamagi grinned a little bit.

"Mister Nadi might need more help, Takaki." Yamagi said.

I left the two at it and headed inside. I ran into Ride on my way to grab food. He was so absorbed in his Ele-pad that we actually ran into each other.

"Oh! Sorry." He said without looking up from his pad.

"What are you doing Ride?" When he got into something it was usually because one of the older boys put him up to it.

He looked at me shyly, "Orga asked me to draw something."

"For what?" Of course it was Orga.

"Tekkadan."

"May I see it?"

"Um, sure." He handed me the pad, "It's not finished yet so it's kinda bad."

On the pad were sketches of a flower. Well, flower could apply to some of them at least.

"Theses are pretty good. It's for the company insignia, right?" I had noticed CGS was crossed out in white paint on the buildings. At first I had thought someone was just trying to be funny, this made much more sense. Then I remembered the silk screen.

"When Orga chooses the one he likes," I handed the pad back to Ride, "Find me, I have an idea."

"What is it?" poor kid, he looked confused.

"You'll see." I walked off toward the storage units.

It had taken some time but eventually I found the silk screening machine and had it running again. Whoever had used it last had allowed the joints in the arms to get rusty. Now instead of looking like a broken down six-legged monster with flyswatter arms, it looked like a working one. I was rummaging through the types of paint when Ride found me.

"He picked one!" The boy beamed. He shoved the pad into my face, the flower looked like a stylized lily: it would be simple to set out and press.

"Perfect. You ever done print duty?"

He nodded. It took a few minutes but we managed to get the CGS logo off of our jackets. It helped that the ink was so cheap.

There were a few containers of high quality ink we were only allowed to use for the First Army prints. They wouldn't miss it anymore. We worked in excited silence, Ride traced out the design and I set it up on the machine. We stretched the jackets over the press and tried to center them as well as we could. It would be a bit of a pain to do this for all of Tekkadan, the look one everyone's faces would be worth it.

"Ride, what do you think of Tekkadan?"

"What'da ya mean?" He laid the stencil down on one of the jackets, "Like how I think about it?"

"I guess."

"Hmm, well I guess I'd think of it as my family."

Family. That was something not many of us had. There were a few kids, Like Biscuit, who had relatives they supported. Then there was me with Nadi as my adoptive parent. Did I consider these boys to be my family?

Maybe. I did consider them my friends. Was it such a large distance to cross, to consider them my family?

"Done!" Ride lifted the jacket to the drying table; I followed with my own jacket.

"We can make more after lunch!" He said excitedly.

"There's no rush, besides I still have to work on that Graze." We left the printing room and headed to the maintenance yard.

"I can help!"

I smiled, "Let's see where Yamagi and Takaki are at with it. They should have made some progess with the cockpit."

"Nadi! Where's Mika?" I called up to him. He was working on a shoulder guard with Yamagi. The Graze was in one piece now, mostly. There was a lot of armor missing that would probably take an entire day to complete.

The big man wiped his brow and looked down at me, "He left to help out on Biscuit's family's farm. Took miss Bernstein with him too."

That was, different. How would that girl do on the farm? Mika probably had something up his sleeve. I had been meaning to talk to Biscuit about the farm equipment but that could wait till he returned.

"Yamagi how's the Graze?"

"Cockpit was installed and works, I got asked to help Mr. Nadi before I could do the rest of the hydraulics."

"No worries, I'll take care of it." Praise that boy. I remembered when he first came to CGS: he had been so shy. It had taken ages for him to just respond with more than one word. He caught on quickly and had become very good at working with the mechs. Officially, Yamagi was considered my apprentice though we both knew it was Nadi who was in charge of most of the teaching. Though I wasn't quite sure who Yamagi learned computer stuff from, certainly not Nadi and definitely not me.

I grabbed a tool belt and goggles from one of the open chests and headed over to the Graze. Most of the damage had been to the cockpit and arm areas. I could weld out the surface damage; the wires were a different story. Yamagi and Takaki had already labeled the wires, some of them were already fixed but a lot of them weren't.

I started up the Graze, without the AV system I was useless in a fight but I could figure out what was wrong with the hydraulic system. While I was running through the system a bit of color caught my eye. There was a picture lodged into the control deck, like it had fallen when they changed out the seat interface. I managed to remove it with a pair of pliers.

There were three people in the photo, one old guy, one snobby looking blond, and a guy with black hair. The black haired one was handsome and was smiling like he'd just done something amazing. I wondered what it was. The old man must have been the pilot Mika killed. I quickly stuffed the picture into a pocket of my work pants. Putting a face to the man we killed made me uncomfortable.

Luckily that was the time the computer identified the problem. It was in the elbow joint of the arm Mika had damaged. From the system report, none of the major frame was damaged but the arm needed the armor replaced and the dings knocked out of it. I was about to shut the system down again when I noticed Ride.

He was jumping up and down with paints and rollers in hand.

"Aurora!" He called, "Can you give me a boost?"

Oh, he meant to the old CGS logo. How did I move this thing again? Oh yeah. It was just a bunch of triggers and hand held controls. It was a lot like the Mobile Workers if you didn't think about the humanoid shape. I maneuvered the undamaged arm down to Ride. After he loaded his gear on and wound a security strap around a secure part of the machine I lifted the mech's hand so that it was level with the old logo.

"Perfect! Thank you!" He gave me a thumbs-up. I locked the arm in place and opened the cockpit.

"What are you doing?" I asked, the boy had begun pouring paint into a bin.

"The Boss asked me to paint the logo here." It was funny to hear Orga called "Boss" I held my snicker in. Ride probably wouldn't have appreciated it.

He went back to his painting and I climbed down the Graze's arm. The lack of armor made it easier to see where the problems were. I would need the big torches to fix some of the dents but most of it could be done with what I had.

"Hey! Be careful!" I lost my concentration and looked down at the crowd gathered below the Graze. Orga, Shino, and Takaki were looking up at Ride.

"Yeah got it!" Ride called out. He'd gotten most of the sign painted over by then, pretty good for one kid with a roller.

I looked back at Orga, his jacket was tied around his waist and his arms were crossed over his chest. There was so much pride on his face while he looked up at what Ride was doing. My chest tightened, it startled me so much that I slipped a little bit. Unfortunately that brought his attention to me.

"Aurora, what are you doing?!"

What? What was I doing?

"Um, my job?" What was his problem?

"You'll fall, you don't even have a security strap connected to anything."

"Orga It's only nine meters, I'll be fine." Maybe I should have had a the strap on something.

"Could you at least get secured to something?"

Okay, don't be mean don' be mean. He only wants you to not die.

"Yes, Dad." Okay that wasn't so bad. I could see his eye twitch from where I was, maybe I would just stay up here.

"She's fine Orga, look she put the strap around something." Nadi called from the Barbatos. Oh bless you Nadi, You beautiful person.

"But don't you do that crap again. You know better." I take that back. Well, no I don't.

"I know, I know."

Eventually the crowd trickled away to their jobs, leaving my mortification and me at peace. I pushed all of what happened out of my mind.

The sun was beginning to set by the time Ride finished and I called it a night. The sky was a mix of light purple and deep red. Ride and I had moved all of the painting supplies inside. When We returned, we had a small crowd gathered, again. I spotted Orga and slowed down so Ride reached them ahead of me. He seemed to grow two inches under the praise he received.

Orga didn't look at me. Okay now I was getting mad, the least he could do was look furious or something. Wait, why would he be mad again? Because I did something that was only a little stupid? He's done worse. He probably forgot all about it and I'm just being dumb. I should probably still not talk to him.

Luckily Mika and the farm crew arrived home at nearly the same time I got to Orga. He didn't move when I stepped into place beside him

"Mr. Mikazuki!" Takaki shouted. The hatch of the truck opened up. It was a hybrid between an old mobile worker and an old truck that Nadi and I had thrown together a few years ago. The boys could drive it without having to be taught, even though most of them eventually learned how even without the AV system.

"Look at this!" Takaki pointed up to Ride's painting. It was a red version of the stylized lily we had printed on the back of our jackets.

"What is it?" Biscuit asked. So he hadn't seen it?

"The insignia of Tekkadan." Orga's voice rumbled in his chest.

"Boss asked me to design it." His face glowed with pride.

"It looks great. Is it supposed to be a fish?" Oh Shino. Ride's face suddenly changed to horror. He proceeded to yell at Shino about how it was a flower.

To Mika Orga asked: "Isn't it good?"

"Yes," Mika didn't seem very interested in it; then again it can be hard to tell with him.

"Mika, We're going to protect this."

I assumed Mika nodded. I chose that moment to make my escape. Or, I tried to make my escape. Orga's longer legs let him catch up quite easily. We didn't say anything for a while. Was I supposed to say something?

Orga beat me to it, "Aurora, I'm sorry I yelled at you."

I stopped, "What? That's it? No yelling or telling me how I'm irresponsible or something?"

Orga stopped and turned around. He looked confused and a little uncomfortable, "Um, no."

"This is so anticlimactic."

"if I yelled at you, you would only close off. That's not what I want. You did scare me when you slipped, I think that's why I yelled."

I scared him? Him? Orga?

"You knew I was up there?"

"Of course I did. If you were trying to hide, you weren't doing a good job of it."

"So my dreams of being a spy are crushed?"

"Don't quit your day job."

I grinned, and then I walked forward and wrapped my arms around him. "Thank you for not yelling at me."

He laughed and hugged me back. We stood there for a moment before I remembered the jackets. I wiggled out of the hug and grabbed his wrist.

"I have to show you what Ride and I did!"


	7. 7

The next day was busy, in the mechanic bay we were working on putting thrusters on both of the Mobile Suits along with the coating of nano-laminate that would protect them from enemy fire. That stuff was not fun to wash out of your hair, especially when the water went cold.

The boys loved the insignia on the jackets so much that they all decided they had to have it. Kudelia saved me from having to handle printing duty. She was so excited and eager to learn that it would have been evil to say no to her. I didn't mind one bit, she and Ride ended up spending the whole day in the printing room. Even our accountant from the former First Army wanted one.

Orga and Biscuit had had their own adventures that day. We needed a guide ship to get us to Earth because Gjallarhorn controlled the main shipping routes. Earth may be our closest neighbor but by no means did that make the journey easy. There were debris clouds and pirates to avoid in addition to the Gjallarhorn ships.

Orga technically being our new president obligated him for the task. I was pretty sure Biscuit had volunteered for the advisor job. Ever since CGS had officially become Tekkadan the two had been tied up in meeting after meeting. Eugene had been pretty steamed after one of them. He'd shouted for a good hour about Orga giving severance pay to the First Army defectors.

The guy had a reason to be angry, we weren't exactly in the clear in terms of money now. But if Tekkadan was going to be successful we needed a good reputation, laying off a bunch of old employees without any pay at all would have dashed any hopes of such a reputation. Besides, not all of the First Army guys were that bad. A bunch of them had families that depended on their paychecks, kind of like how Biscuit's family depended on his.

It was one of those give and take things. It happened in our adventure stories all the time: You can kill the monster to save the princess or you can sacrifice the princess for the sake of the village. In this case, Orga chose the village. I wondered what he would do if the princess were a person and not just a bunch of numbers on a screen.

"So how did the meeting with Orcus Go?" I asked Biscuit.

We sat across the table from each other in the empty mess hall. It was relatively early for anyone to be awake. We both wore our jackets to keep away the early morning chill. I envied him for his scarf it looked warm. Mikazuki had passed through some time ago but he usually woke up before anyone else so he could get a workout in before the day started. One of the bad things about being early is that whoever's turn it was to be on cooking duty was unlikely to have woken up.

Biscuit had made us oatmeal, the quick kind. I didn't mind so much, it was better than the mash we were given during back when we were under CGS. I absentmindedly twirled my spoon between my fingers. Biscuit rested his cheek on one hand and scooped oatmeal with the other.

"It was alright. We have the documents signed. Orga didn't like the man in charge at all." He stifled a yawn.

"What was wrong with him?" Orga was pretty spot-on with the character of a person.

"He didn't say exactly. But he did get that look on his face."

Oh I knew the look. It was not something I liked having directed at me. Over the years most of us had learned not to try and trick him. It usually didn't end well for whoever tried.

I nodded and looked out at the sky. It was a clear blue today, no clouds to block the sun. That was the day we were supposed to get launched up. I was picked to go because I was in charge of the Graze. If we wanted to sell it, it needed to be in good condition. Seeing as Nadi would have his hands full if Mika got into any fights with Barbatos, I was pretty much obligated to go.

"He's probably got a plan already." He did have a tendency to be crazy prepared.

Biscuit nodded. Yup, Orga had a plan and Biscuit knew it. We sat in silence for a while until we got up to put our dishes away.

"Oh, did your Grandma say anything about the equipment needing repairs?" I liked to keep Miss Sakura's farm equipment running smoothly; partly because it would be cheaper if I did it and mostly because I didn't trust the mechanics in town to know how to fix anything. My father was the best mechanic in town, and everyone else knew it. When he got sick none of the other mechanic shops tried to help. Instead they were probably angry that he didn't die faster. Money did that to people, made them nasty.

"No, but she did say that the tractor has never worked so well in all of the years she had it." I smiled at the praise.

"EUGENE!" I shouted. Orga had said Eugene wasn't going to take the pink paint lying down, why did he have to be right? Why did I always ignore the warning? All around my bed were cups filled with water, if I wanted to get to the bag I'd packed for the trip I would have to carefully make a path. Eugene was so gonna get it.

"What? Are you afraid of a little water now?" The culprit walked around a row of bunks, his hands were stuffed in his pockets. His jacket was unbuttoned and the stupid little tie he liked to wear swayed with each step.

I placed my hands on my hips and arched an eyebrow at him, "You do realize you've declared war, right?"

He stopped in front of me and grinned, "Bring it."

We glared at each other for a moment more. He broke eye contact first; I counted it as a point for me.

Luckily, Shino chose that moment to amble in. He was talking to one of the younger boys about something, probably women, when he noticed Eugene and me.

"Hey guys," he looked at the cups of water, "Did you get thirsty Ari?"

"No, Eugene decided to try and build me a moat. It's not going well though. He forgot the bridge." I pointed to the cups. Shino laughed and said something about Eugene's planning skills.

Eugene made a rude face, I stuck my tongue out at him.

"If I help you clean it up will you go on a date with me?" Shino asked me with the hopefulness of a small child.

"Uh, I'll consider it." No way was that ever happening.

"I'll take it!" He then proceeded to knock over, yes, knock over, all of the cups.

"Shino!" Eugene and I yelled.

"What? The floor's even cleaner now and you don't need a bridge!"

Eugene face palmed.

"That's not quite what I had in mind…" I trailed off.

Takaki popped his head in the doorway, "Everyone, we're getting ready to leave for the launch-port. What's wrong?"

Shino had gotten Eugene into a headlock. Eugene had one of Shino's ears in his grip. I was watching with my small bag of clothes slung across my back.

"Don't worry about it." I said. I pointedly ignored the brawl taking place on my bunk. I grabbed Takaki's wrist and pulled him along after me. Poor thing looked so confused as I led him away.

"Shouldn't we-"

I cut him off, "Nope, if they miss the truck then they can take one of the Mobile Workers to the spaceport."

"Isn't that a little harsh?"

"Not at all. They'll be racing each other to the truck in a minute or two." I sighed. For those two to get into one of their masculinity fights meant that things were on the way back to normal. Just in time for everything to get messed up again.

"Did you get the younger boys all packed up?" I asked him. I had let go of his hand and we walked in step down to the garage.

Takaki nodded, "Yeah, it was a little like herding cats."

I opened my mouth to reply when two bodies streaked past us. I had to grab Takaki's shoulder to keep him from falling over in the resulting wind.

"I know the feeling. You get used to it after a while."

The garage was more organized than I had thought. There were three trucks being loaded: two for the crew of the space ship and one for the people seeing us off. I had helped Nadi load the Mobile Workers and the Mobile Suits into the larger trucks. Even with Mikazuki's help, between the mechs and necessary cargo, loading had taken most of the morning. He and Tamagi had gone with Nadi right after lunch to load everything onto the shuttle. I got to deal with the people side of things. Lucky me.

Eugene and Shino were arguing about who had beaten who, they drew the attention of a few boys. Biscuit was half trying to keep the peace while the other half tried not to laugh. Takaki hurried away to help a few of the younger kids who were coming with us. They were twins who were probably going to be handfuls, maybe I could use them to get back at Eugene.

Todo was leaning against one of the trucks. He scanned over the crowd, I noticed him pause on Biscuit then once more on Orga before continuing his survey.

Interesting.

His eyes stopped on me and I realized I was staring. He knew I wasn't his biggest fan but I was pretty sure he didn't harbor suspicions of me. I nodded once to him and moved on.

I waded through the mass of boys running through the garage for the closest truck. There was a haphazard mountain already formed so I added my beaten up bag to the mess. From far away, the bags all looked the same. They were all made of the same dull green canvas material, meant to be practical rather than pretty. But when you got up close, you could see the individual differences: like Eugene's bag having the ID number of the mechs he's piloted written on the very front. Trust Eugene to try to show off even when he's not around.

A sly grin crept across my face. This was the perfect set up for revenge. I thought about what I had on hand and what I could do with it. The plan was just coming together when a certain person's hand locked one of my shoulders in its vice-grip. And there went my brilliant plan. He put his free hand on the truck so that I couldn't run away, and he leaned in.

"I know you aren't going to do something to Eugene's bag. Especially when there are so many witnesses." Orga whispered in my ear. He was using the deadly–serious voice, the one he knew scared the heck out of me. _Breathe, breathe and calm down_ , I scolded myself. I turned my head to look up at him over my shoulder and used my best "winning" smile.

"Of course not! I was just moving it so that it wouldn't fall when the truck leaves!" I put the bag back and piled mine on top of it, "See?"

He raised an eyebrow, definitely did not buy it. Shoot. First the scaring him thing and now this, this was not shaping up to be my week. I shook off his hand and turned around to face him, he leaned on the truck instead of me.

"How did the water thing go over?"

I stared at him, the little rat. He knew Eugene was going to pull something and he didn't tell me! My eyes narrowed, "Before you say anything incriminating I would suggest giving a good thought to whether you want to get into a prank war with me or leave it between Eugene and me."

"I couldn't just leave him to deal with you alone. Friends have to stick together."

"What?! I'm one of your friends too!" I crossed my arms and looked up expectantly at him. He wore his usual work outfit, except now the Tekadan insignia was emblazoned on his back rather than CGS. Come to think of it, he did have a tendency to take responsibility for everything.

"Let me rephrase that: _guys_ have to stick together. Especially when you're around."

"Not fair! It's not like there's an abundance of girls here." I said while I crossed my arms.

"Don't worry, we have Atra now so you can add one to your team!" "Yeah maybe it won't smell so bad around here now that there'll be another person who showers more than once a month." I pinched my nose and mimed waving a stinky smell away.

I glanced around the garage; most of those around us had stopped paying attention a while ago. Me teasing the guys was nothing new, even though it was entertaining. Todo, however, looked very intrigued by our conversation.

Orga was about to reply to my shower comment with what I could only assume was a witty jab befitting of a teenage boy when something in his face shifted. He stopped being the Orga I was used to and became Orga: the boss of Tekkadan.

 _Todo_? He mouthed.

I smiled in response. Couldn't risk a hidden lip-reading ability, even if it was just Todo we were talking about.

"Taken care of. Can the Graze be used?"

Did he know exactly to whom he was talking? Of course the darn Graze could be used. It even had thrusters for space; I had the scorched gloves to prove it.

"Is that even a question?"

Orga grinned. Why did he have to do that? It made my stomach feel weird.

"Right, what was I thinking," He removed the hand that had kept him propped up against the truck, "Just keep an eye out, I've got a feeling the trip will be more exciting than we think."

Couldn't anything here be calm? Hopefully everything would quiet down after this mission was over. Who was I trying to kid? Nothing would ever be boring around these guys. I sighed and made my way around the truck. With Akihiro up in space with our ship I was next in line for driving duty.

My passengers spoke in excited whispers that quickly gave way to a dull roar of predictions for the trip. Atra, who had elected to ride with me rather than with Shino or Eugene, and I shared a smile while we listened. My personal favorite was that Kudelia would become queen of Mars and we would all live in castles with candy and delicious food in every room.

How different this week had turned out to be.

If all had gone according to plan, CGS would still be operating but there would have been a significantly weakened Third Army. Orga, Eugene, Biscuit, and Mika had been chosen to go, if they'd been killed we would have lost our main leaders. The Third would have been left severely weakened and significantly easier to manipulate.

"Are you okay, Ari?" Atra asked. I must have been scowling pretty hard for her to say something.

"Yeah, just thinking about stuff." I smiled at her.

We were quiet for a moment before she changed the topic, "It's really exciting to be going with you all. Have you gotten to go on many missions?"

"Actually this'll be my first one. I'm stuck at the base while the boys get to have all the fun." I replied, I figured she didn't have to know about all of the times they had come back beaten and tired.

"Oh, I was hoping you could tell me what space is like. I guess we'll just find out together!" She said with a smile. It was almost enough to make me forget about my bad feeling. We sat in comfortable silence while the boys chattered on.

The trip was as uneventful as it could have been, considering I was driving a bunch of excited kids around. I could proudly say that there were only two arguments and one punch thrown the entire way.

There was a momentary lull in the chatter when we arrived at the port. After they took in the sight of the port building and launch ramp, the kids only got even more excited. I pulled the truck into place beside Eugene and Shino, Orga and Biscuit were already outside and talking to the accountant we had managed to keep on from CGS. He was tall and thin with glasses, his last name was Culastor and I was pretty sure his first name began with a "D". He glanced nervously at the kids poking their heads out of the windows of the trucks. Apparently he was going to be sticking around even longer because we needed an adult at the base to make sure things didn't get too out of hand.

Though everyone was excited, they fell in line and helped load luggage into carts for transfer to our shuttle. An outsider would probably be confused if they had seen the boys switch from rambunctious kids to trained workers in under a second. Sometimes I even forgot how young some of the boys I worked with were. No matter what happened to them, they would never truly be able to be children.

We said our final farewells and goodbyes and parted with our base crew. A couple older boys were staying behind as well. They worked under me with the Mobile Workers, they were pretty good mechanics but I needed them at the base. They didn't have the confidence level for the mission and not having Nadi or me to turn to would help them build it up.

They helped Culastor herd the younger ones into the port building so they could watch the shuttle take off. The part of the building facing the launch way was covered in windows, the kids would have a pretty good show.

The shuttle we were taking was meant for low orbit trips, mainly to transfer passengers and goods to ships waiting just outside of Mar's atmosphere. Most of it was basically big cargo bay with the actual passenger section taking up a tiny portion of the shuttle-space.

I tried to stay calm while I walked up the rickety stairs to the hatch. It loomed ahead of me, dark and hungry. Biscuit disappeared into the gloom first, I followed and hoped no one saw me hesitate for a moment.

The inside of the shuttle was quite large, there were two rows of single person seats with windows. I passed Biscuit and chose a seat toward the front. I dried my palms on my pants and took a few slow breaths to slow down my rapid heartbeat. That wasn't working so I kneeled on me seat to see what everyone else was doing, maybe if I ignored it my heart would slow down. Kudelia and her maid took the seats in the very back. I noticed Todo cast a furtive glance their way before sauntering to the seat in front of me.

Orga watched him the whole way.

He caught my gaze: _watch him_.

I nodded back and turned around just as the pilots asked us to fasten our seat belts for launch.


	8. 8

The shuttle rattled like a tin can while its engine warmed up. My stomach was roiling from the violent shaking, I breathed through my nose to try and keep down whatever I ate for lunch. Everyone else seemed to be fine. They chattered on and on about the mission and getting to see the stars from space. I wondered if the boys in the back of the shuttle were as excited. Probably, it didn't take much to get them going.

If Todo tried to hurt any of them he would have Hell to pay.

I glared at the seat in front of me, as if I could somehow will him not to do something stupid and try to double-cross us. A sudden lurch from the shuttle made my stomach flip, when would this be over?

The pilot's voice crackled over the intercom, "Sorry about that folks, just the ground transportation moving us into place. We'll begin launch sequence in one minute."

Oh thank goodness this was going to be over soon. I glanced out the window at the cleared runway. Everyone would have been ordered away from the intense heat of the thrusters. I thought about the balance differences between Mobile fuel and Shuttle fuel, they were actually pretty similar. Shuttle fuel was a little less noxious though.

Suddenly we shot forward, up the runway that I knew curved into the sky. There must have been inertial dampeners somewhere in the guts of the shuttle because breaking out of Mar's gravity felt less like a mobile worker sitting on me and more like a dozen sandbags being piled on my lap.

The ground dropped away sickeningly fast from my window. Soon the apace port looked like a toy on the vast Martian landscape, if I angled my head just right I thought I saw a patch of green where grandma Sakura's farm should have been.

In minutes the weight of the sandbags fell to zero. I could see the entirety of the planet upon which I'd been born and I felt, for lack of a better word, small. Everything that'd ever mattered to me had happened on that rock, in one small city. If Gjallarhorn had succeeded in wiping us out that day, the world would have kept turning.

"Hey, isn't that Orcus' ship?" Takaki's question turned my stomach to ice. This was much too early for them to show up. I heard Todo chuckle to himself in front of me. The stupid pig.

"What's that!?" The alarm in Takaki's voice made me even angrier. I was standing, hands gripped on the head rest of my seat to keep myself from wringing Todo's neck. I glanced at Orga: he was up as well. Biscuit bolted across the aisle for a better look at what was happening.

"Those are Mobile Suits from Gjallarhorn!" Biscuit said.

"Wait, there's something behind them too!" Eugene choked out.

"What?" Disbelief quieted Biscuit's voice a bit.

That's when Todo moved, "What? What's going on?!"

He stood from his seat and stumbled into the aisle, back pressed against the door separating us from the pilots. I glanced over at Orga for orders but he was quiet, I could see the gears turning in his head.

"Isn't that a Gjallarhorn ship?" Shino's voice was hard with anger.

"Todo, explain yourself!" Eugene bristled.

"I don't know anything! There was nothing in the plan about Gjallarhorn!" He really looked like a cornered animal now. He tore the door open, in his haste he forgot about the decreased gravity and tripped for a minute before launching into the cockpit. Shino was up, his usual carefree demeanor was gone. He was already storming down the aisle when a voice came over the intercom.

"Tell him that we are grateful for his cooperation"

Todo was so dead. Even in the low gravity Shino managed to look intimidating. He disappeared into the cockpit too.

"You sold us out?" was all I heard over the sound of Todo's groveling. Then a smack and he was silent. You never wanted to be on the receiving end of a punch from Shino.

Orga made it to the cockpit as well, "Forget about docking, try to shake them off!"

The shuttle broke off from its course and sped away from the enemy Suits. Not that it would do much in the long run, our little thrusters were no match for the output from an Ahab Reactor.

Eugene joined Shino in wrestling Todo into a seated position outside of the cockpit. Orga moved to stand beside my seat. His hand covered my own on the headrest. I told myself that is was only for him to keep his balance; there was absolutely nothing else to it no matter what the funny feeling told me.

Todo snapped awake, he had a nice shiner where Shino had punched him, "I'll never forgive you guys! You can't do this to me! We'll all be killed." Eugene growled something back at him. The shuttle jolted, but this time it had nothing to do with ground transportation. I glanced back at the others, Atra and Kudelia looked totally out of their depths.

"Are we surrounded?" Biscuit asked.

"Communication from enemy Mobile Suit," everyone quieted, "He's asking for the immediate release of Kudelia Aine Burnstein to the custody of Gjallarhorn!" One of the pilots called out.

"Hand her over! Hand her over!" Todo shouted frantically.

"How dare you!" Eugene growled again.

"How else can we save ourselves?" Todo yelled over him.

"What can we do, Orga?" Shino asked. Everyone looked to Orga but he stood silent; what was he waiting on?

"Please, you must hand me over" Kudelia pleaded. She was way too quick to hand her life over for us. It bothered me a bit.

Orga interrupted her before she could continue arguing, "I can't do that. It'd make us dishonorable."

I was so shocked I nearly laughed; trust Orga to have honor on the mind at a time like this. Todo began to scream insults at Orga but Shino knocked him out again.

Orga turned around and shouted, "Biscuit!"

"Got it!" Biscuit had moved to the back of the shuttle and stood before one of the intercom systems, "Mikazuki, we're moving forward."

There was a collective "What?" through the cabin. Orga and Biscuit had apparently not told anyone else about the plan. I only knew a bit but none of the particulars.

The shuttle shook, either we had been stuck again or it the cargo doors were opening. I was hoping it was the latter. Moments passed before a shockwave rocked the ship. I glanced out the window and saw bits of armor floating by. Mika had made his entrance.

One of the pilots lost his nerve when the shockwave hit. He was pale as a sheet when he emerged from the cockpit saying over and over: "We're gonna die."

Shino swore and jumped away to take over the man's abandoned console leaving Eugene to deal with a passed out Todo. Everyone from the old CGS snapped into work-mode, it was like the flick of a switch. I don't think Atra had ever seen us like that until that point.

Orga followed Shino into the cockpit, I could hear him barking out instructions while I strapped the woozy pilot into one of the seats. The cold pit where my stomach used to be helped me focus.

"We're gonna die." He told me again. His pulse was weak and fast, skin pale and clammy: Shock.

"Hush. We won't die, just trust me okay?" I said in my best calming voice. I unfastened the cufflinks on his pilot suit but there wasn't much else I could do.

"I need you to do something for me, okay?" I waited until his eyes cleared a bit and he nodded before continuing, "I need you to count to three and take deep, slow breaths. Can you do that for me?"

He nodded and started with a deep breath. I left him to it.

From the window I saw two more mobile suits gaining on us. I had to regain my balance when the shuttle banked a little too fast for me. The docking station was close beneath the belly of the spacecraft; I could see sparks fly from where the bullets from the enemy Suits struck it. Another one locked into position to fire at use once more. I couldn't tell the type of gun it was using but I bet it was similar to what our Graze had.

Suddenly it was blown off balance by something, Mika. I craned my neck to see but he was out of my range. They turned to follow him, leaving us relatively clear. Until Orcus' ship started firing at us. Nothing hit the shuttle but the shockwaves from the exploding ammunition sent the little craft tumbling. If we took even a glancing hit the shuttle would rip apart. We weren't equipped with anything for defense let alone offense.

"Look!" Takaki called out. He was pointing at something off our starboard side.

"What is it?" I asked.

"A medium class assault ship." Takaki replied, "Is it on our side?"

"Yeah" Biscuit sounded more than a little relieved.

So that was where Akihiro was. I recalled that he was away getting the ship prepared and officially registered under Tekkadan but I didn't know he was our cavalry. The _Isaribi_ pulled alongside the shuttle, completely dwarfing it. It had a red and white paint job that needed a serious recoating.

We wasted no time in boarding the ship. The shuttle pilots were eager to leave the area so the transfer of goods had begun almost instantaneously. All of the boys not involved with the bridge had moved to help out. I found Nadi in the Mech Hangar. He stood by with a checklist while the boys moved out our machines. Yamagi was leading the boys working the transfer.

"How'd you like the ride?" I asked Nadi. The reduced gravity allowed me to jump to him from the entryway without any trouble. Man, this was going to be fun if we make it out of the scrap in one piece.

"Let's not do anything like that again." He replied. I glanced at the list, everything but the Barbatos was accounted for. I had a feeling the Graze would be earning its keep real soon. There was a rack of headsets on the wall, I snagged one and let it hang around my neck.

"Nadi, channel three if you need me." That was the maintenance channel back on the base, it would work for here too. Nadi and Yamagi had everything under control so I hurried to the bridge.

On the way I met up with Shino. His face was scrunched in irritation while he manhandled a protesting Todo into an empty storage closet.

"Enough!" Shino shouted at the whining man, I winced a little at the smack of fist meeting face. That man was going to have brain damage if Shino didn't hold back a little more.

"Everything okay?" I called. Shino grabbed my outstretched hand and pulled me to a stop.

"Yeah just dealing with the trash." He looked angry enough to spit. Needed a distraction.

"Is there an update on Mika?"

We started back toward the bridge; well, more like I was dragged along back to the bridge. My hand was still buried in his grip.

"No when I left." The death grip on my wrist relaxed somewhat.

We made it just as Biscuit called out that Mika was still trading fire with the enemy.

"Well, that answers that question." I mumbled to no one in particular. I took in the set up while I rubbed circulation back into my hand. The bridge was dominated by screens showing the view from around the ship, below them sat control stations manned by Eugene, Biscuit, Akihiro, and two of the former Debris soldiers: Dante and Chad. Shino took up a position behind the captain chair, ready for orders. Atra and Kudelia were behind Biscuit watching Mikazuki from the monitor. Orga was in the captain seat.

"Ari, get Yamagi to ready the Graze." He said without turning from the screen. I could see the flash of ammunition exchange from the fight.

"On it," then into the headset I repeated his message. Biscuit protested at using merchandise but like Orga said: it would be no use if we were all dead.

"Akihiro, can I ask you to pilot it?" Orga asked. There was no response but I saw Akihiro move up from his position.

I filled him in on the Graze as well as I could on the way back down to the garage. He took it all in and only asked a few questions.

"Does it have the AV system?"

I shook my head, "No, it's a manual cockpit. That type of graze is realtively simple though. It's the standard base model." I thought for a minute and then added, "Even I could make it move."

We parted when he changed into the space suit. I swung into to the main bay to see the Graze standing-by for deployment. Yamagi had even thought to have the Barbatos' mace at the ready. That boy needed a raise.

"Everyone out of the area of the airlock." I said into the comm system. The guys who had stayed in the garage moved to the viewing platform where Nadi and Yamagi stood. They had an ele-pad with the camera view of Mikazuki playing. Akihiro floated past me into the cockpit.

I nodded at him. "Airlock ready and waiting."

He nodded back before being buried beneath the Graze's armor.

It took him a minute but he figured out the controls and moved the Graze out. Into the headset I reported the Graze deployed. I kicked off to move to where Nadi and Yamagi stood with the group of boys. Ride was among them and a few of the older ones, they made space for me to watch.

I twisted over the safety rail and moved in just in time to see one of the enemy brought down by the mace. I pushed away the guilt at their death; it could wait. One of the Suits bull-rushed Mika with his axed raised. Mika spun out of the way and continued to dodge the other two enemy Suits that followed. Akihiro shot a pulse and brought one of them down, there was no damage to the cockpit that I could see. The system must have briefly overloaded.

The first Suit, the hotheaded one, continued to fire recklessly at Mika. He slashed and shot but nothing he could do even came close to catching the Barbatos. Mika slashed the arm of the enemy Graze, leaving it open for a finishing blow. I was more than a little relieved when Mika was distracted by another Graze, which he crushed easily with the mace.

Another Mobile Suit, not a Graze like the others, appeared and drew Mika away from the downed Suits.

"Nadi what is that?" I asked without taking my eyes from the screen.

"Some sort of Schwalbe Graze. One they keep for the higher-ups." He muttered. It was very different. The body was a humanoid shape with a purple paint coat and a lance on its right arm and what looked like a grappling claw on the left arm. Mika kicked the falled graze away, freeing his mace just in time to block the Scwalbe's charge.

Whereas Mika's movements were fluid with minimal effort behind them; the Scwalbe looked like the machine was doing most of the work. There was definitely skill behind each lunge but there was no flow to them. Maybe the AV system had something to do with it.

I didn't see the second Schwalbe until it fired a blast at Mika. This one managed to land a hit on the Barbatos' thrusters. The camera lost range and the feed blinked out just as the two suits closed on Mika.

"What? Bring it back!" Ride shouted. The ship lurched suddenly, throwing us all off balance. One of the older bunch caught me before I could smack my head on the railing.

"Thanks, Noah." He wasn't one of the mechanic crew, I was pretty sure he worked with Shino. He may have helped out once or twice with medical stuff. Nice guy.

"Oh, um no problem Aurora."

I was distracted by Chad's voice on the headset, "Ari! Get one of the Mobile Workers ready."

"Nadi we need a Worker to be ready."

"What? But we're not close to anythi ‑ oh." Nadi's sudden pause drew my attention back to the screen. Dante had already linked a diagram of what they were planning to do, it played out on the ele-pad. We were going to use the mining asteroid to swing completely around and face Orcus' ship. They needed one of the Mobile Workers to release the tether.

Nadi sent a few guys to get one of the Workers ready.

"I'll never understand how you kids come up with this crazy stuff." Nadi sighed. I smiled back at him. It was definitely a crazy plan; we may not be able to get the pilot of the Worker back before Gjallarhorn discovers them. Whoever piloted the Worker would essentially be an open target.

To be honest, I wasn't surprised when it was Eugene who showed up in the pilot suit.

"So, you're our saving grace?" I leaned back on the railing.

"Can't let Orga take all the spotlight." He grumbled. The mobile worker moved into place and the boy driving it jumped out. He waved the go ahead for Eugene.

Eugene moved to jump down but I grabbed his wrist before he could, "You'd better come back."

He smiled at me, "don't go getting all sappy on my now, Ari." Then he was gone.

"Eugene is ready." I said into the headset.

"All crew move to secure locations, this ride may get a little rocky." Chad's voice rang out over the comm-system. We huddled around the ele-pad: it was showing the diagram updated for Eugene's location. He was waiting on the outside of the ship just by the tethers on its nose.

"Anchor firing!"

The dot that represented Eugene moved along the cable line toward the asteroid. When the _Isaribi_ entered the turning radius we were al swung against the railing. Ride held onto the ele-pad like his lifeline. The dot reached the asteroid.

On the screen the symbol for the ship was at the end of its turn and going into the red zone. The estimated projector had us ramming into the side of the asteroid, that was not good for everyone to see.

"We're gonna hit it!" someone yelled.

"Eugene won't let us down!" I shouted back.

"I'm too old for this kind of excitement." Nadi yelled above all of us.

Then, the screen went green and showed the ship continuing on toward the enemy assault ship. There was a collective sigh of relief. We picked ourselves off of the rail, there would be some good bruises tomorrow from this craziness.

Nadi flicked the camera back to what the bridge was seeing. The _Isaribi_ broadsided the enemy ship. We even managed to scrape a gun or two from her side, though I cringed at the damage to our own ship.

"Chad can you make sure Akihiro knows Eugene's location? I don't think Mika'll be able to grab him with those Suits on his tail." I asked.

His reply crackled over the headset, "Will do."

It took Akihiro fifteen minutes to make it back into the hangar. The Graze looked pretty good after its first battle under Tekkadan I would have to ask Akihiro how it ran. Hopefully it wouldn't need as much maintenance as the Barbatos. The twin Ahab Reactors probably needed to be recalibrated. I swear you could sneeze at those things and they would be screwed up.

Akihiro had managed to grab Eugene's Mobile Worker but there was no response from inside. The mech itself was pretty banged up; it must have struck the asteroid pretty hard. There were no fuel leaks that I could smell though there was no power. As long as the seal around the cockpit held up Eugene would be fine. We could get him out through the manual release. Akihiro had set it down on one of the repair lifts before shutting the Graze down.

I chewed my thumbnail and tried not to think about Eugene. Death was routine, there were always kids not coming back from the missions. It was different actually being out here with everyone. The unease was so thick you could've cut it with a knife.

"Ari! Any news on Eugene?" I jumped when Orga stopped beside me, the rest of the bridge team.

Nadi answered before I could, "I just sent Yamagi after the manual override code."

"The seal is probably still in place since even Shino Couldn't open it." Shino had tried forcing the hatch open earlier, now he sat on top of the Worker.

Orga nodded but didn't say anything back. His brows were furrowed and his lips were pressed together in a hard line. For some reason it really bothered me that he was upset and I wanted to do something about it. I leaned into him a bit all the while trying to ignore the funny feeling it gave me. His shoulders loosened, if only a little. I counted it as a win.

We all held our breath when Yamagi returned with the Worker's code. It took both Shino and Noah to work the hatch open. There was a hiss when the seal broke. Relief at the sound swept through the small crowd. He was likely okay.

Eugene looked like he was taking a nap. Apparently being locked in a powerless machine was boring to him. Orga jumped up to help him out of the ruined mech.

"You made me pretty nervous." He said.

"It's you who made that awful plan" Eugene sniped back. Yeah, he was fine. He took Orga's hand and was hauled up and out of his seat.

"I expect you to do the same thing next time."

"What?!" Eugene's exclamation caused an chorus of laughter to fill the hangar.

"Shino, what'd you do with Todo?" I asked. I'd nearly forgotten about the canned rat. I didn't want him on the ship any longer than he needed to be.

"Hmm? Oh don't worry about him. Kudelia helped me make a little send off for him." He grinned. Of course, being Shino, he proceeded to mime the binding of Todo for his gathered audience. He even managed to raise his voice to an absurd level for Kudelia's bit. I listened for a while and I couldn't help but wonder what Gjallarhorn would do when they found him.


	9. 9

The hangar was empty but for the chorus of the maintenance crews. The hum of drill and spit of welders joined with the clank of tool against metal to provide our own little style of music. Nadi's orders rang out ever now and then to correct or redirect; Yamagi and I supplemented those orders with our own.

I had set Noah on Eugene's downed mobile worker. They had fixed the power a few hours before and now were working on making the poor mech look less like something that belonged in a junkyard. Actually, most of our stuff did belong in a junkyard only Nadi's hands and the cheapness CGS's former president kept our mechs out of such a place.

We learned fast how to recycle parts from machine to machine. There was never money for new mechs in the Third Army, our scavenger crews picked up most of our spare parts from old battlefields. Our latest run-in with Gjallarhorn gave us a few nice trophies.

The Graze had very little damage, definitely nothing that warranted part replacement. Barbatos, however, was a different matter. The poor machine was partially naked because of some maneuver Mika had done; but that's what our scavenged parts were for.

The hours since Eugene's extraction had been spent ripping out damaged parts and replacing them with new ones. Thrusters and panels were strapped to the walls of the hangar for inspection of the nano laminate armor coating. It had been a pain in the butt to work with back on Mars and I was hoping to avoid having to reapply it.

"Gramps, does the outer coating for the Suits work like the stuff we put on the workers?" Takaki asked from somewhere behind me. I was elbow deep in the Graze's circuits and didn't bother to look.

"Are you dumb? The stuff we use for the Suits is in a completely different league." Nadi replied irritably, he needed a coffee, food, or both before he bit someone's head off for real. Though he did have a point. The nano-armor we put on the Suits had multiple layers that reduced the damage taken in order to protect the metal, and the pilot beneath. The energy of the low would be absorbed and released when the armor chipped away, thus decreasing it to a more manageable force.

Unfortunately, this meant that some areas of the armor were more worn than others. The Graze had a lot of wear on the arms and shoulders, matching Akihiro's fighting style. His big body could take a lot of hits before going down which meant he dodged less and focused on ripping through defenses. Mika was smaller and could out maneuver his attacker; he dodged more so the coatings on his mech were more intact until you looked at the thrusters.

I knew the AV system allows the boys to link up with the machines and move them like their own bodies. The reason why the thrusters were so beaten up was simple: human bodies don't have them. Mika had never fought in space and wasn't accustomed to the thruster pack we installed for space movement.

I sealed the wires back up and clipped them into place, one more thing to cross off of the list. The E-pad in my pocket lit up at my touch and I flicked through the pages of electrical outputs and mechanical data on the Graze and then on the Barbatos. The Graze was nearly complete; I shot off more directions to my teams. Half of them were to peel off and work on the Barbatos and the others would remain.

I shoved the pad back into one of my cargo pockets and kicked off toward Nadi. He had big circles under his eyes that I was sure mirrored my own. When was the last time either of us had slept, or eaten for that matter? Probably not since the launch the previous day.

My traitorous stomach complained loudly not a second after I touched down.

"I sent you the updates on the Graze, it's pretty much done." No matter how hard I tried there was no way to keep a straight face.

Nadi grinned at the strange noise, "Good now get out of my hangar."

"What?" My smile faded in a second.

"Now don't you give me that mom face. I'm not one of those kids." He sucked in air and I knew I was in for a lecture, "You're tired, that rewiring took you five minutes longer than usual, your hands are trembling because you haven't eaten or drank in eighteen hours, I can't have that on my crews."

He was not playing _that_ card, he knew better, "I've gotten just as much rest as everyone else here," Thank god I resisted the urge to stamp my foot. Looking like a petulant child would do nothing for my standing among the boys. I was a leader in CGS because I was strong; I kept pushing forward and didn't take the breaks they did. I couldn't afford to.

"No you haven't, everyone here has taken a break except you. I can't have my best mechanic breaking down." He clapped me on the shoulder and I almost missed how well he played me. Maybe I could use a nap, then again a shower sounded pretty good too.

"Fine," I huffed. I wish I could say I my irritation was false but I would rather have kept working. Machines were easy; if they stopped working they could be fixed. Creaks, dents, shattered armor, it could all be wiped away; life was different. I didn't have to worry about Gjallarhorn when I had wrenches and soldering tools in my hands.

I guess Nadi was right though: I was slower than usual, too slow for Suit work. Especially when the darn things needed to be ready yesterday just in case someone decided to finish what Gjallarhorn started.

Boys scurried up and down the halls with boxes or tools, nearly all of them stopped for a moment to greet me. The excitement over outrunning the top military organization in the galaxy put a little more bounce in their steps. I wondered how long until it would fade.

There was always that period after a really good mission when everyone would be in high spirits. The sad part was watching the kids come down from that high, knowing there was still work to be done and that the next win would be far off. Eventually the wins stop making them feel so great and they just look complete the next mission. Maybe things would be different now that we were Tekkadan instead of CGS.

I nodded to the next group of boys that passed before ducking into my room. On a ship like this having your own room was a luxury, one I greatly appreciated. It was a small space but I didn't mind because it was mine. There was a basic desk with a monitor, a screen that was supposed to represent a window, and a small bed tucked in a corner. The bed was all I really wanted.

I pulled off my jacket and threw it onto the desk; there was enough gravity that it actually landed instead of floating around. I didn't bother with my suit; I'd have to put it back on soon enough.

I collapsed onto the thin comforter; even compared to the bunks at the base the bed was soft as a pile of feathers. Blue fabric muffled my sigh. Lightweight and cheap, the comforter was just the thing a cheapskate like Maruba would choose for sleeping quarters. Not that I minded, anything was better than the thin blankets and canvas bunks. Maybe Orga would let us buy actual beds for the base when we got back.

It was a pleasant thought and I almost drifted off completely while thinking about it, unfortunately one of my crewmates decided they really needed to talk to me right then.

An annoying buzz made me haul my tired self off of the bed and toward the door. There was a little screen on the right of the frame with a video feed. Biscuit's face took up the center screen, he apologetically held up a lunchbox.

"Only letting you in 'cause you have food." I growled and jammed a finger onto the OPEN icon. The door slid open without a sound.

"Sorry, Yamagi said you got sent to your room." He grinned and handed the box to me. I noticed he had one to.

"Only Nadi would get mad at me for working too much."

"Only you would get in trouble for working too much." We both grinned sheepishly. I stepped across the room and sat on the bed, he dragged the chair over from the desk.

"So, why do I get delivery service?" I cracked the box open and the smell of Atra's cooking took over the room. Vegetables with rice and some sort of red sauce, she even remembered to skip the imitation meat for me. There was even a spoon to go with it. While I tucked in Biscuit's box remained closed.

Something was up.

"It's Orga," He began.

"When is it not?" I interrupted with a grin. No matter how much I liked the guy, Orga did have a habit of causing headaches.

Biscuit smiled back before continuing, "I just saw him and I really think he's making a bad decision about what Tekkadan is going to do."

"You mean with the transportation mission?"

"Yes!" He exclaimed, almost tossing the box of delicious food across the room in the process.

"His plans usually work out in the end, especially when you're around." I pointed my spoon at him. He fiddled with the box until it popped open. We ate in silence after that.

My thoughts drifted to the Suits and whether we could add a gun or two to the Barbatos's basic frame. Mika had a habit of tossing his weapons aside, which was fine for ground fighting but not so much for space fighting. Those guns would keep him from being a sitting target if he lost all of the Suit's weapons.

"Do you know the reason why he's always so reckless?" Biscuit's question broke me out of my thoughts. He cradled his head in his hands like he was having a headache. The lunchbox was forgotten on the desk, I tossed my own next to it.

"I've always thought it was because he's a guy and you're all dumb." I said cheekily. Usually that would have gotten a rise out of him but no luck today.

He gave a weak laugh and continued, "He does it because of Mika."

"Explain?"

"It's because he thinks that Mika will think he's weak if he doesn't keep doing crazy things like playing chicken with a spaceship."

I sighed and then put my hand on his shoulder. In a grave voice I said, "You see, I was right: it's because he's a guy and you're all dumb."

His laugh was a little more convincing that time but he still had a worried look about him. It was the shoulders most of all. People can use facial expressions to hide what they feel but they often forget that the rest of their body is usually more truthful. Biscuit's shoulders were sloping, the way a defeated man would hold himself. Whatever Orga had said to him, Biscuit wasn't buying it.

Maybe trying a different strategy would work better. I thought back to when we were younger and the adults and Maruba ran CGS. Even then Orga was doing crazy stunts, usually to protect others or to finish a mission.

"Do you remember the time when we were little and some of the First Army decided to pick on you guys?"

"Yeah, they made us run laps in the middle of the hottest day of the year and then they knocked us down if we weren't running fast enough."

"How did you guys get out of it?" Of course I knew how they got out of it. Even I had my rations cut for a week. I didn't mind much, girls have a slower metabolism and I'd had a bad habit of hording food back then.

A grin crept across his face, "Orga bet that he could run a lap around the base faster than any of the adults. If he did win then we wouldn't have to run. He ended up getting a beating for winning and then we all got our rations cut."

We laughed and reminisced a bit more about some of the dumb things we all used to do. Putting grease in shampoo dispensers, snatching food from the First Army stocks, sneaking books into the base. They were considered "wastes of paper" and every time one of the books was found, it was burned or torn up in front of us. After a few tragedies Nadi started to help us hide them or said they were his if anyone got suspicious.

Biscuit left after a while and I eventually lost my battle against my eyelids soon after. My nap was dreamless and ended too soon. I glanced at a clock and only half an hour had passed since Biscuit's departure. Curiosity kept my eyes open this time and after pausing to stretch, I left to look for him.

I didn't have to search long. I found him staring at one of the window-screens. This one was programmed to show the port side of the ship. Apparently the idea of being encased in a metal tube, hurtling through a vacuum at speeds greater than that of sound was scary for some people and windows helped. Then again, windows on a spacecraft were also a scary thought so monitors that replicated windows were put in place instead.

He looked lost in thought, hands shoved into the pockets of his jacket, one foot back on the railing. The weird feeling in my chest was more pleasant this time and I didn't mind it so much.

"Hey," I said, leaning back on the railing to his right.

"Oh hey," He replied, and then with a smirk said, "I heard you got sent to time-out. Did you make a break for it?"

I wacked his arm, "Was not time-out! It was a mandatory break."

It was beginning to irritate me that people likened my forced break to childhood punishment.

"Whatever you say, Tantas."

"Watch it Itsuka, or I'll quit. I'm sure there's some other company that would like a mechanic with Mobile Suit experience." I think he may have believed me for a hot second, until he saw my grin of course.

"So, why is one of my top mechanics up here?"

"I saw Biscuit a little while ago, he seemed a little concerned with what you have planned," I crossed my arms, "So, what exactly is Tekkadan doing?"

In order to get to Earth we needed an escort that knew the safest route, ours decided to try and kill us for Gjallarhorn, failed at that, and now we were in a bind. We needed to get Kudelia to Earth but none of us had ever been there, nor did any of us know a travel route that wasn't under Gjallarhorn control. Space was full of debris and pockets of asteroids that could put a delay, or even a halt, on our first mission. Not exactly a position any of us wanted to be in.

The grin faded and Orga put on his Business Face, at least that's what I called it. "We're going to the Jupiter area to make a deal with the boss of Teiwaz."

I had to pause for a moment and process that statement. From what I had overheard, Teiwaz was essentially a mafia that had a ton of influence in the Mars area and had a base out by Jupiter. They had their fingers in a couple of different areas such as agriculture and transport. You did not want to mess with them unless you had clout or a good proposal. I was pretty sure we lacked the former and I was uncertain about the latter.

"So we're throwing in with the space mafia? That's your best plan?" I turned to face him, one brow arched. He moved away from the back rail to lean over the front, the one closest to the screen.

"Hey, that was a god skeptical face and you just ignored it." I followed him to the rail.

"Sorry," he said to his hands, "Honestly I've thought and thought and this is the only option we have. We can't subcontract because we need our name out there. We need a big deal job so that other jobs come in."

I took a moment and really looked at him, there were creases and frown lines on his face that hadn't been there a week ago. Orga had always supported and defended all of us; he needed someone to do that for him. He needed someone to whom he had nothing to prove.

"Okay." I pushed off of the railing and walked in the direction of the mess hall.

"Okay? What does that mean?" He sounded nervous. I glanced back at him and that mask was gone again and Orga was, well, himself. Something in me squeezed, and I dug my nails into my hands to focus.

"It means that I need coffee and I'll follow you down this path you've chosen."

There was only one kind of coffee we you could get on a ship: Instant. On Earth you could get the real stuff, the kind made from roasted beans that you had to pour water over. When we got there that was the first thing I would try. Unfortunately that was still a few months off and I was stuck with the powdered stuff. I piled an extra spoonful into the mug before adding the water. Hopefully it would help chase the sleep away for another few hours.

Before I even finished my coffee an alarm, one of the sounds no one ever wanted to hear on a ship, blared from the speakers. I chugged the rest of the black liquid and left my mug on a counter, I'd make it up to Atra later. There was no one to pass in the halls; they'd already gone to the bridge or to the hangar to figure out what was going on. I was closer to the bridge.

Gjallarhorn was on the list of possible reasons for the signal. Though, if it were them they would be a bit shaken from our previous battle. If it was an unknown we were probably in trouble. I prayed that the crews had made headway with Barbatos in the hours I'd been gone.

I stopped partway outside of the bridge; even from there the tension was palpable. The grating voice of Maruba Arkay was also pumping through the doorway. Either he'd joined up with Gjallarhorn like Todo or he was with the unknown.

I stepped into the bridge and took up position behind Orga's right. Mika had his left. There was a new man on the screen calling himself Naze Turbine; he had long black hair flowing out from under a white fedora to match his white suit. I tuned him out and focused on the reactions of the others. Biscuit was busy looking up who the man in white was; Mika was pretty much sizing him up; and Orga, well, he was giving the man a glare that could turn hot oil to ice.

"The Turbines are a crew under Teiwaz, they're pretty high up on the hierarchy." Biscuit handed Orga an E-pad and nodded at me. Any hint of worry had faded when the enemy approached.

"What?" Orga whispered.

Biscuit continued. "That guy, Naze, he's sworn a blood oath to the head of the organization."

"So he's one of the big shots?" Orga asked.

"This is the worst possible scenario."

I looked at the man in white again. He was relaxed, confident; he's obviously won multiple battles and thought his reputation could make us roll over. There was a woman at his side, easily one of the most beautiful people I had ever seen. The woman was scantily clad with a wicked scar stretching across her right hip; judging from her height relative to the Turbine's chair she would have towered over everyone onboard except for Akihiro, Shino, Nadi, and Orga. I caught her looking at me so I held her gaze, raised my chin defiantly and put a hand possessively on Orga's chair. She arched an eyebrow ever so slightly and smiled.

"If we cross Teiwaz, it's over for us." I couldn't agree more with Biscuit: these people were powerful. We all waited for Orga to say anything.

"No, this is a chance. Maruba brought us the opportunity to speak with a Teiwaz representative, we shouldn't waste it."

Naze, the man in white, finally broke his silence, "Now, don't whisper among yourselves when you're talking to me. It's quite rude."

"Sorry, please continue."

"Watch yourself Orga." Biscuit whispered. It was like watching two lions circle each other before a fight any show of weakness right then would have been detrimental. Two more people stepped into the bridge as well but I didn't turn to look at them, the woman and I were still holding each other's gaze.

"Well, as thanks for helping out this poor man," Naze Turbine nodded toward Maruba, "we would take over ownership of all CGS property. Unfortunately, CGS has gone out of business. At least on paper. All of its property had been transferred to something called Tekkadan."

I didn't like where this was going.

"So what you couldn't get from Maruba, you're going to take from us." Orga's voice took on the scary quiet that meant he was really angry. I was glad to be on his good side at that moment.

"Don't be to uptight, I saw your battle with Gjallarhorn for myself. You all put up quite the fight for a bunch of kids," Here we go with the darn kid thing again, "If you hand everything over, I won't mistreat you. You can be a group under us and decent work will come your way."

"You won't have to risk your lives." My hand tightened on the chair, the skin around the lady's eye's tightened ever so slightly. She was picking up any information she could, I had to control my reactions.

Fortunately, Maruba chose that moment to spout some nonsense about killing the lot of us causing the lady to pull him away from the screen with one hand, releasing me from her stare.

Naze recovered quickly, "You've got a pretty big household, you can't expect to stay together forever."

"Are you serious?" Orga actually seemed to be considering it. I stared at him in disbelief; Tekkadan was a family he couldn't just let us be split up like that.

"Why would I joke about something like that?" Naze asked.

"I don't want everyone to get split up." Thank the skies for Mika. If anyone could influence Orga, it was him.

Biscuit looked like he was going to protest but whatever he said, Orga spoke over him, "Sorry Mr. Turbine, we can't accept that offer." He was typing something out onto the E-pad while Turbine spoke.

Orga handed the pad to me and said to Turbine, "We've accepted a job as Tekkadan and we can't just quit partway." I noticed Kudelia stepping forward and chose that time to make my escape. The instructions on the E-Pad were clear: we were about to get into a fight with one of the most formidable organizations in the galaxy and Orga had a plan.


	10. 10

Orga had a plan.

It was reckless and stupid.

It was the best shot we had.

It had to be.

"Noah! Yamagi! Did you get the instructions I sent you?" I wasted no time getting to the hangar. By then everyone knew we were to prepare for a fight. The crews crawled over the Suits like ants, finishing last minute repairs and latching pieces back into place.

"Yeah, we already sent the info to the bridge." Noah grabbed my outstretched hand, pulling me to a stop on one of the railings overlooking the maintenance bays. His black hair was ruffled and, like me, he had ditched his shirt for the regulator suit.

He, like all of the boys, wore a black suit with grey seams along the arms and chest; those ones were for people with the Whiskers implants. Mine was the regular white with grey seams reserved for anyone without the implants. Because none of us had spent much time in space we needed them to help keep temperature fluctuations and excess radiation from affecting us too much.

"Thanks." I said to him before turning to Nadi. He had ceased to call out orders and looked to me instead. It was quite the role reversal and the moment was not lost on me.

"How are the Suits? Can they be used?"

"The Graze just needs a pilot but Barbatos needs more work," I stared at him a little longer, "We can make it work, just not at 100 percent." He sighed.

"Thank you." I said both to him and Noah, who handed me one of our intercom headsets. Their weight felt all too familiar around my neck. How many more times would I wear them before this job was over and I could go back to hiding in the repair hangar?

" _The ship is preparing for battle. Gravity will now be deactivated._ " Ms. Admoss's calm voice sounded through the hangar speakers, "Prepare for 180 degree turn in two minutes"

" _Akihiro and Mika are on their way._ " Chad's voice crackled over the comm. I gave a thumbs-up to Nadi: our pilots were coming.

"Load the Graze up first, we'll send Barbatos out second!" Nadi's voice boomed through the hangar. Even though he followed my instructions I knew who was really in charge. It was comforting to know that he had my back and wouldn't let us screw up too badly. Hopefully.

"Yamagi, Takaki, take your teams and ready eight Mobile Workers." They nodded at me and kicked off across the bays. Our Workers were strapped into the side of the Hangar, out of the way yet still accessible if needed. Getting them ready meant refueling, loading ammo, and of course moving them into launch position.

Noah was part of Shino's boarding team so he would be leaving. They were in charge of their own guns, ammo, and suits so I didn't need to spend time on that. I watched the boy, barely younger than me by a year, swing around the door to where the boarding gear was stored. He seemed so sure of himself but I knew he was scared. Any sane person would be. Shino said that was what kept you sharp: the fear.

"Akihiro, you're set to launch." Nadi called out. The broad boy was already in the normal suit and made a beeline for the graze. Those suits were the only things that would keep the pilots alive if there was a breach in the cockpit. They were pretty basic, like most of the equipment on the ship, but they had basic life support for an estimated one-hour of space-time. I prayed we would never need to figure out if that was an over or under-estimate.

In the controlled chaos that was the hangar I almost missed Mika puling himself into the Barbatos. Nadi was with him, probably explaining what was keeping the Mech from being at 100-percent.

I pressed the speak button on the side of the headset. "Ms. Admoss, can you send a visual of the battlefield to my E-pad? I'm sending the ID-number to you." Instead of a verbal affirmation, a message popped up on my screen. I tapped it and multiple windows opened at once, each one was linked to a different camera.

"Thank you." I said quickly. The Graze was picked up by the loading crane and set into the catapult that would launch him into the battle.

" _Graze, Akihiro Altland, heading out._ " Akihiro's gravely voice was the next to come through the speakers. A cheer went up around the hangar. The Barbatos swung into position after the Graze was launched. I flicked through the windows until I found the blue-hot fire from the Akihiro's thrusters.

The enemy had already launched one suit and was in the process of launching a second. The models of both were too hard to make out but I could tell they weren't Grazes: the basic balancing was too different. I hoped the lady from the

" _Barbatos, Mikazuki Augus, heading out._ " A similar cheer; a second blue streak joined Akihiro. Both of our guys were on the field.

The loading crane moved quickly, placing the Mobile workers into the catapult like bullets in a gun. The ship shuddered around us from artillery fire. I tapped the screen again and pulled up another base page, this one showed all of the mobile workers and their statuses. They were nearly all at 100 percent.

"And here I thought you were bad with computers." I was so focused that I didn't notice anyone behind me. Orga reached over my shoulder and flicked back to the page with the battlefield visuals.

"Even old dogs can learn a new trick or two." He had totally broken my rhythm and I tried to hold on to the pieces. I could not afford to be distracted here. I turned around to look at him and put a few inches of space between us. He raised an eyebrow but I think he got the message because his commander face came back.

He cut an impressive figure in the Normal Suit. A gun hung behind him, it would be loaded with gas canisters. The live ammunition was in a magazine attached to the outside of his suit. The goal of the mission was to make the Turbines sit up and take notice of us. Make them understand that we were more than just a bunch of kids playing at being an actual organization.

"My guess is that negotiations totally dissolved?" I asked.

"Not without Biscuit's best efforts." He pulled himself over the guardrail and kicked down to the Mobile Workers. Of course I followed, I always do.

We stopped at one of the Workers, the E-pad said it was fully fueled and ready to go. I rapped the side of the machine with my knuckles, "You still know how to actually pilot one of these things?"

He grinned at me, "Just because I don't pilot doesn't mean I can't." Right, part of the image he maintained. Sometimes you had to look like a person in charge in order to be one. Orga usually stayed out of the pilot seat in order to dole out orders on the battlefield. He'd given that role over to Nadi, Eugene, Biscuit, and me.

" _Maintenance crew: When you're finished get out of the catapult, the airlock is about to close_!" Nadi called through the speakers. The rest of the boarding team was settling into the workers, it was time for me to leave.

Before I could kick off, Orga grabbed my hand, "I'm com–"

"Nope!" I cut him off, confusion spread across his face so I softened my expression and squeezed his hand, "I understand, but you know that phrase is a jynx, promise me you'll never say it to me again?"

He smiled, "Yeah."

" _Enough flirting you two_!" Noah's voice crackled over my headset and I glanced around to find him grinning at me from a Worker adjacent to Orga's. I slipped my hand out of Orga's and kicked off and out of the catapult.

"Hush you." I'd have stuck my tongue out at Noah if there weren't other people around.

I looped an arm around the guardrail in time to catch Yamagi and swing him over. He had a dazed look on his face and he was holding his left hand. Panic lanced through me and thoughts of him being hurt flashed through my mind.

"Yamagi, are you okay?"

He looked at me as if he just realized I was there, "Oh, um, yeah."

He seemed embarrassed about something but I didn't push. All that mattered to me right then was that he was okay. The airlock closed with a pneumatic hiss and we were cut off from the Mobile Workers and their pilots.

I flipped through the visuals of the battlefield again, another enemy Suit had come into play since Mika and Akihiro launched. Yamagi and I took turns swiping back and forth to keep the battles on the screen but there was only so much the ship could capture.

"Yamagi do you know those suits?" I asked.

"Hyakuren, not a Gjallarhorn Suit." Yamagi muttered, quickly identifying the enemy. If they weren't from Gjallarhorn then that meant Teiwaz had their own supplier. A good one.

Another shudder rippled through the Isaribi. The third suit had closed and was peppering the ship with bullets. This one had a large propulsion pack that increased both speed and agility, making it a target our anti-craft guns couldn't dream of hitting.

Mika forced her to change course with a few shots from the Barbatos's shoulder cannon. The enemy's propulsion made them too agile for any of the shots to land but their focus had been shifted. Mika and the enemy flew in tight formation around each other, eventually moving out of range of the cameras.

The Isaribi had a few tricks of its own, including a plentiful stash of smokescreen missiles. The bridge fired a volley of these in the direction of the Turbine's ship, the E-pad identified it as the Hammerhead. They wasted no time in intercepting the missiles causing a smokescreen to envelope their field of vision, and ours.

I hoped Eugene was a good enough pilot not to flatten us against the battering ram that gave the Hammerhead its distinctive shape. The cameras on the bow showed a shadow, then the full ship can into view. The Turbines hadn't even stowed their bridge they were so assured of a win, I felt my eye twitch in annoyance.

"Mobile Workers launching!" It was Takaki's voice that called out this time. Yamagi and I practically glued our eyes to the screen, to the ever-growing ship. Eugene turned us at the last second so that we barely missed the Hammerhead. If the Workers moved into the wrong position, they would be flattened. But we wouldn't know their until the battle stopped.

Yamagi switched to Akihiro's side of the battle and I prayed that the Graze was holding up. He had kept the Hyakuren away from the Hammerhead for our game of spaceship chicken. Apparently they had caught on to what Akihiro had done and tried to leave the battlefield to protect their ship. He would have none of that.

The Graze rushed the closest suit, causing it to turn about and parry with what looked to be a giant combat blade. The Graze couldn't match the Hyakuren's output and its axe was tossed aside. The enemy suit slashed down on the Graze's torso, knocking it away.

It seemed as if Akihiro was stunned for a moment before the back thrusters fired off and recklessly shot him toward the enemy. Without the axe Akihiro pummeled the enemy with his fists. It reminded me of a brawl, definitely not something you should do with a Mobile Suit. Where Akihiro's moves resembled those of a street fighter, the enemy's were those of a trained martial artist.

The Hyakuren locked the Graze in its grasp and brought a knee up to smash the head sensor, effectively blinding Akihiro. He was knocked back again but didn't give up: the shoulder canon shuttered into place but the Hyakuren easily dodged the shot. That gun was for ranged attacks, not close combat.

The enemy ripped the gun off of the Graze, causing the barrel to explode, knocking Akihiro into the other enemy Hyakuren which, until that point, had remained on the sidelines. He wrapped the Graze's arms around the leg of the enemy Mech and punched it ineffectually, again something that would work in a human fight but not in a mech battle.

The first Hyakuren returned to assist its comrade. It grabbed the ruined Graze and whipped it around like a rag doll. The second Kyakuren wrapped around the back while the first poised its combat knife to shear off the rest of the Graze's head. My breath caught in my throat. Yamagi's hand grabbed for my own and squeezed. I squeezed back, eyes glued to the screen.

" _They've agreed to hear us out._ " Biscuit said over the ship's speakers, " _It's over._ "


	11. 11

When you're a mechanic you tend to pick up a few things. Usually those things are related to rewiring, shaping metal, or knowing where a certain machine type will stick no matter how many times you grease it. When you're a mechanic for a paramilitary group that seems to get into more fights than an angry drunk you learn to accept that the machine you poured time and effort into fixing will just end up being smashed to bits.

I sat on the railing that ran around the hangar Nadi stood on my left. Together we looked over the beaten Mobile Suits, cataloging superficial and internal damage into the E-pad's database. It occurred to me that we even wore the same expression and I snickered.

"What's funny?" He asked without diverting his gaze from the Barbatos. That was Nadi: always focused on getting the job done.

"Don't worry about it." I replied. My face settled back into a grimace.

The Graze had taken a major beating. The sensor covering was crushed but salvageable, some of the joints needed to be repaired, the cannon was totaled, geez the list just went on. Barbatos was in better shape, but only just. At least with the Graze we could scavenge parts. That was one of the major benefits of Gjallarhorn's standard model: nearly any armor they made could be modified to fit it.

Barbatos was a different story. No matter how good Nadi was he couldn't dream of being on par with a Gundam engineer, and we didn't exactly have any hiding in the crew. Most people who knew how to service a Gundam well had died out three hundred years ago. The machine itself might be darn powerful but that meant nothing if we couldn't fix it when it broke.

I glanced down at the spreadsheet on the E-pad. Dante had somehow made a program that recognized the parts I typed in and checked what we had in storage on the ship. Parts we had would turn green and parts we didn't have would turn red. There was a lot of red on Nadi's list.

I swung my legs over the railing. The slightly magnetized boots kept me from bouncing off of the observation walkway. Walking around had felt weird for a while, the boots were just strong enough that something felt off when I moved, but I got used to it. That's what I always did: adapt to the environment I was thrown into.

I guess that's what all of the kids did. But did it always have to be that way? Couldn't we shape our own environment?

Was that what we did when we took over CGS? Maybe. But it didn't feel any different.

Sure, there was no longer a First Army to antagonize us but we would never be anything other than the Third Army.

"Where're you going?" Nadi grumbled. He flicked through more diagrams of output systems from the Barbatos and scowled at the E-pad.

"Going to get coffee so you don't eat me." I called back.

"Wait up! I'll come with." Noah called out. He had changed out of the normal suit back into his regular clothes. He'd reported back to the bay as soon as the transport shuttle brought the rest of our infiltration crew back to the Isaribi.

"Sure." I didn't stop to let him catch up but his legs were longer than mine. We were in step before long. Walking around on the ship was a strange combination of walking and floating. I still preferred walking, I don't know if it was the lack of control that came with floating or what but I didn't like it so much.

Noah was trying to be my friend, I was fully aware of that. Even though the boy had moved closer to my core circle of friends he had yet to make it into the circle of people around whom my image changed. I had to maintain a tough exterior around most of the boys otherwise they wouldn't listen to orders. When I was younger, before Orga and Mika joined CGS, I was pretty much ignored if Nadi wasn't around.

Street kids understand hierarchies and dominance. The best way to move up in a hierarchy is by establishing dominance. Dominance usually came to those who could beat up or outsmart the others; sometimes you could get it laterally by being friends with someone who was dominant. I got my spot in the hierarchy by picking a fight with Eugene. I didn't win but I did earn his respect and we became friends; thus the lateral dominance effect.

To keep your spot in the hierarchy you had to project confidence and a don't-mess-with-me attitude. Keeping the image up: I was good at that, almost too good. Dealing with Noah was helping me with that. Or I was just making more friends. Either way it was a good thing.

"Aurora, did you hear me?" Noah waved his hand in front of my face. I guess I'd zoned out for a while. We'd made it to the kitchen and he'd started mixing mugs of instant coffee. I blinked and looked at him questioningly.

He gestured at the mugs, "How do you and Nadi take your coffee?"

"Black, both of them." I replied.

He made a face, "ugh, it's like tar without anything in it."

"Puts hair on your chest." I grinned at him, he dumped sweetener and powdered cream into his own mug.

"Don't listen to anything she says about putting hair on your chest." Shino shouted as he thudded into the mess hall. He pushed past us to grab his own mug of instant. He'd taken the time to change into normal work clothes too.

"That was one time!" I smiled. Noah handed me the mug lids and I snapped them onto the steaming cups.

"What happened?"

"She told Eugene and me that if we ate dirt we'd get hair on our chests." This had happened before they hit their growth spurts and started to put muscle on. Both of them had been scrawny little things, even though I really wasn't one to talk.

"You were the ones who listened to a girl's advice about growing chest hair. I think the consequences were your own faults."

"You actually listened to her?"

"We chased her around the base until Haeda yelled at us for causing trouble. Then we were all running from him!" Shino gulped down his coffee and then smiled at the memory. I grinned at him.

"Have you heard anything about what's going on with the Turbines?" I asked.

"Hmm? Oh yeah, Orga and Biscuit told us that the boss guy with the funny hat said that he'd introduce us to his boss." Shino explained

"What?" I grabbed two of the coffees and Noah grabbed his. Shino followed us to the maintenance bay.

"Yeah! Now we're going to the Teiwaz headquarters to work out a deal with the big boss!" He said excitedly

"Wait, we're joining a space mafia?" Right, Noah wasn't there when the rest of the guys had talked it over.

"That's the plan apparently." I called back. It wasn't great but we had no other options. I listened absentmindedly while Shino filled him in.

Teiwaz was a name nearly everyone had heard about. They had earned dominance by being the toughest in the outer orbits. They are the organization even Gjallarhorn would hesitate to directly cross with, at least in the vicinity of Mars and Jupiter.

The atmosphere in the bay was different when we returned. Where there had been gloom and weariness there was an tangible spark running through the crews.

Enough of the younger group was clustered around the Gundam that I could guess what, or who, had caused the shift. Mikazuki was there working on the Barbatos. Shino and Noah left to join him. I jumped over to Nadi, who was in the exact same spot I'd left him in.

"Thank you." He accepted his mug and nearly finished it in one gulp.

"Mika came too, huh?"

"Yeah, he's a real help with that thing," He gestured to the white Suit, "Him being connected to it is the best way to figure out what's going wrong."

I nodded and sipped my own coffee. We stood there for a while, occasionally calling out orders to the crews working on the two Suits or tapping notes into the E-pads.

"What do you think of the Teiwaz decision?" I finally asked.

"So that's what's been eating at you." Of course Nadi picked up on it. I never could hide anything from him, even when I tried.

He sighed, "You know Orga as well as anyone. Do you think he'd throw all of these kids into something dangerous if he thought there was a better choice?"

"Is there a better choice? Why do we have to be a part of a gang?"

"Would Gjallarhorn be a better option?"

"No. But–"

"Ari, you know the world isn't black and white. Gjallarhorn isn't the noble organization it claims to be, maybe Teiwaz isn't awful like gangs are supposed to be."

"I hope not. I told Orga I'd follow the direction he points Tekkadan in." I just hoped it was the right one.

For three days our mechanic crews pulled ten-hour work shifts, or at least everyone else did. Nadi and I stayed on for fourteen-hour shifts as the overseers. Okay officially we had fourteen-hour shifts; unofficially we lived in that maintenance hangar for the full three days. I wasn't the only one who had a bad habit of working longer than I should; that habit certainly did not come from working with my dad when I was little.

Those 72 hours weren't pretty, I'm pretty sure I snapped at Shino or Noah once or twice, but we got those Mobile Suits back into decent shape. Okay, maybe the Barbatos wasn't in decent shape but at least the Graze worked. We didn't have the resources to make the Mech look like it was at 100 percent but I thought the dings, scrapes, and patchy paint job gave it some character.

There was only so much we could do with the Barbatos without its plans or an engineer who knew how to repair the darn thing. Nadi and I tried our best but there's only so much you can do with wires and wrenches. One of the ladies from the Turbines crew, Eco her name was, came to help us out. After the mad rush we'd been through up until then any assistance was fine, even if it was from the crew that'd banged the Mechs up in the first place.

It had been such a long time since we'd had to pull shifts like that, I don't think any of us remembered just how bad maintenance could be. Banged fingers, cuts, bruises, all of that on top of frayed tempers made for a bad situation. When Nadi announced that there wasn't anymore we could do, well, I swear you could feel the atmosphere lighten.

Even the lukewarm water of the shower felt so good I nearly cried. We couldn't spare much energy to heat the water any higher but every degree above freezing counted.

After the last bubble raft of soap slipped down the drain to the water recycler I started to doze. The air was slightly steamy and warm but the cold ceramic of the stall shocked me awake again. Reluctantly I ended the shower and wound my thin towel around my chest. My grimy clothes were in a ball in the corner of the stall so that I wouldn't have to touch them too much to bring them to my room.

There was no one else in the bathroom but I hurried back anyway. I didn't worry about anyone seeing me in a towel; most of the guys on board were pretty young or had grown up with me anyways. Back at CGS it'd been the First Army guys who gave me any trouble. Instead I hurried because the metal panels that made up the floors of the hallway were sucking the warmth out of my bare feet.

I quickly tapped the "open" code into the panel that was embedded into the wall beside my door. It opened with a hiss and I quickly dove inside. The floors weren't any warmer but I did have nightclothes: an old shirt and a pair of shorts. Much better than a thin towel for keeping warm.

Even better for keeping warm was the blanket that covered my cot. I tossed the ball of clothes haphazardly into a hamper bound for the laundry and stumbled into the blue material. I don't remember anything after that.

My hair was still wet when I woke up. Well, when I was _woken_ _up_ by someone knocking on the door. I sighed and hoped they would leave but of course they knocked again. Someone must have ratted me out.

I hurriedly ran my fingers through my hair to get some of the knots out and shuffled to the door. I tripped over a pair of boots that I'd left in front of the door and nearly smacked my head into a wall.

"You okay?" The person on the other side of the door asked. Their voice was muffled but I could tell who it was in an instant, though it only improved my mood a little.

The lights of the hallway blinded me for a moment or two before my eyes adjusted. Orga stood just outside the door; when he saw me squint he laughed before moving to block out some of the light.

"Atra said you didn't get dinner with everyone else, I figured I'd make sure you were alive."

"Am I?"

He raised an eyebrow, "Are you?"

I thought for a moment before asking, "What time is it?"

He glanced at the panel on the door, "half past twenty hundred."

"Too early." Could I only use simple sentences when I was tired or did he just make me too nervous? Not important.

What was important was that I still had ten hours before I needed to think about doing anything.

He gave me a confused look. Oh right, 20:00 hours wouldn't be early for someone who actually kept regular hours. Oh well.

"You can come in or you can stay out there," I stifled a yawn, "Either way I'm gonna go back to bed." I turned around, ambled back to my little bed and threw myself down. I was still so tired that I didn't even care about wrapping the blanket up around me.

Behind me I heard door hiss shut. For a moment I thought he'd left until I heard the click of boots on metal. There was a pause and then the quieter padding of feet crept closer. The noise stopped and then something warm and soft covered me. I cracked an eye open and saw Orga's hand pulling my forgotten blanket farther over me. My hand flashed out and grabbed his wrist. He jumped a bit but to be fair, even I was startled at the quick reaction.

"Stay." I mumbled.

He huffed like he was annoyed but I knew better. If it were left to him he'd probably end up in the chair even if he would rather have been with me on the slightly more comfortable cot.

I tugged gently on his wrist to get him to move faster.

One of the best things about getting Orga alone was that he stopped trying to put up the cool front and he became the awkward guy I knew he was. Seeing him be a little unsure of himself reminded me that he was still human.

"Now what will the crew think?" He sighed. Even half awake I could hear his smile.

"Don' care, and you're already here." I tugged again. And for the first time I really didn't care. There was no embarrassment, no thoughts about focusing on work. Just this. Just now. And I really wanted someone to be next to me.

The bed jostled and dipped a bit under his weight until he found a comfortable position. The bed was a bit short for him so his legs stretched all the way to the opposite corner. The arm I'd captured remained where it was, draped over my waist and wedged under my left arm. The last thing I remember before I surrendered to sleep was feeling safe tucked up against him.


	12. 12

Mornings on the ship had settled into a routine. The crew would slowly wake up and stumble into the Mess Hall for coffee and breakfast, Eugene and Shino would tease me about Orga once or twice before moving on to some other topic, and then everyone would depart to their assignments. The cycle went on.

Adults would think that a crew of kids would slack off and play games all day instead of working. Kids like us didn't know how to stop working, it was all that stood between the streets and us; between living and dying. There was even a comfort to knowing that there was a purpose for you and a whole team of people working with you. When we worked we weren't alone.

I walked the halls alone. I had left Orga at the bridge and Noah was down in the mechanic bay with Shino and Eugene. They'd taken to using the bay as their default hang out.

It was the time of the day between meals, when the rest of the boys would be off and away. The Mess was quiet and empty but for Atra cheerfully slicing and peeling some vegetable for her next creation.

About that time I would walk into the Mess and we would have coffee together and talk about the day or sit in silence; her with her chopping, me with some data pad in my hands. The day before it had been a spreadsheet of all of the scavenged parts that were to go to market, today my task list was wondrously empty.

"Hey Atra." I called. She would either be behind the counter or at the tables, setting up or wiping down. But today she neither chopped nor wiped, instead she sat at one of the long tables accompanied by a figure I had only seen on the monitor of the Bridge. The dark woman who had stood behind the captain of the Turbines sat and sipped coffee in the middle of our Mess Hall, chatting with our cook.

"Oh Aurora!" Atra popped up from her seat. Her pink sweater hung to mid-thigh, nearly covering her gray shorts. The largeness of it contrasted with her petite form, giving the illusion that she was smaller than she was.

Though she looked young I knew her to be about fifteen; her diminutive size was a sign that she was like us. A sign that she had at one point been cast away by society and left to fend for herself as a child. The light behind her eyes showed she hadn't been beaten by her childhood.

"Ms. Amida was looking for you! I told her you would usually stop by around this time." Atra babbled.

The dark woman, Amida, didn't rise from her seat and instead inspected me from over her shoulder.

"Please do join us." She drawled in a voice that was thick like the syrup we were occasionally given as holiday treats. I froze for the slightest of moments and I knew the woman saw. Mentally, I kicked myself for the lapse. Physically, I moved silently between tables to where they sat.

I took the seat that put my back to the windows that lined the Mess and my face to the door. Odd that she had allowed me to take a position of surveillance. Was she showing that she was confident in her position, or maybe she was signaling trust by exposing her back?

"Amida was it?" I asked in my best neutral tone. I didn't know if Atra could pick up on my caution but she chattered about pouring me my own coffee and quickly busied herself with that.

The woman smiled and I was struck with the depth behind her eyes. They seemed fit for a person with more years than she could have reasonably laid ownership to. "Yes, Amida Arca. But you can just call me Amida, okay?"

Was smiling her default expression? Atra rejoined us and I thanked her for the coffee before she retreated behind the counter once more. The steady sound of chopping filled the silence.

I cupped the hot mug in my hands and rested both elbows on the table, "What brings you to our ship?"

I tried to keep my tone light but my wariness still stood out. Seven days had passed since our crews had been at each other's throats. Though I had heard updates on our relationship with Teiwaz and the Turbines from Orga every night, I still harbored some distrust.

"I came to see the heart of this thing you call Tekkadan." She said with a slight smile. Maybe the smile was to show she meant no harm.

"The heart?" What the heck did she mean by that?

The corners of her mouth pulled into the slightest smile and she leaned forward over her mug of coffee.

"Maybe I should explain a little better. I mean the thing that keeps the group moving. The heart." She placed her hand over her chest and looked at me expectantly, eyebrows raised.

"Why do you want to know about Biscuit?" If I had to pick anyone for the "heart" she was talking about, it would certainly have been the chubby boy. He was always there, planning, looking out for us. Orga led us, that was for sure, but Biscuit drew the map and kept us on course.

She threw her head back and laughed. I jumped a bit at the sudden loudness and the rhythmic chopping stuttered in the background. I kept my gaze level; any glance away would have sent the wrong message, that I was uncertain and unconfident. I needed to show that I was comfortable and unshaken.

After a second Amida put her hand on my shoulder, "no, I mean _you_ : the woman behind the commander."

I tensed at the sudden show of closeness. She recognized her overstep and pulled back, leaving the space between us like a barrier. That was strange; if she were here to challenge me she would have tried to keep me off balance.

"How does my personal relationship make me the heart of Tekkadan, a company?" I sipped my coffee.

"What represents a company more than the man who leads it?" She asked.

"Orga isn't Tekkadan, he's just a person."

"But isn't Orga in charge? Doesn't that make him the embodiment of what it means to be a part of Tekkadan?" She raised an eyebrow at me before taking a sip of her own coffee.

"No. Tekkadan isn't just a single person, it's all of us." I paused for a moment, using the coffee to buy time and find the right words. Amida politely waited for me to continue, "Orga might have kicked the gears into motion, but it takes all of us to keep Tekkadan running."

"So to you, the heart of Tekkadan lies with the person who keeps the group moving. This Biscuit?"

"Yes and no."

"How can he be both the heart and not-the-heart?" Leaned forward and cradled her chin on her palms. Not an aggressive posture, meant to lower my defenses.

I thought for a moment before continuing, "He and Orga are like a team: Orga pushes forward and Biscuit corrects the path. They've always been like that."

Amida nodded, listening intently.

I twisted the mug around in my hands while I went on, "Biscuit makes sure that Orga's plans will be okay for everyone. He's always considering how things affect the group and looks out for the rest of us. That's what makes him the heart."

"So then what makes him not the heart?"

"All of us –all of Tekkadan– are held together by really strong bonds. We've been through so much pain and the hardships have made the bonds we share come together like chains. And I think those chains keep us connected and drive us forward," I broke off for a moment to finish my mug of coffee, "we all do our best so that our friends stay safe and protected. That's what I think our heart is."

"I see." Was all she said. I felt a little deflated at the short reaction. Was I actually trying to win her approval? Was that why I felt disappointed?

"I like that idea." Atra had spoken so quietly that, for a brief moment, I thought I'd imagined the words. Her voice was stronger when she continued: "That idea of us protecting each other and looking out for everyone. It's like a family."

We sat in silence for a moment before the clank of boots stirred us. The first wave of boys was coming in for their lunch break.

Amida rose and brought her mug to the counter for cleaning. She thanked Atra for a wonderful cup of coffee and turned her forest green eyes, a shade similar to my own, to me. This time there was no challenge in the connection and I knew I had passed some sort of test.

At the entryway to the Mess boys paused to peer in at the three women having coffee: two uninterestingly familiar and one intimidatingly unknown.

She grinned at me once more, "I found our chat to be, enlightening."

The heavy atmosphere faded considerably when she sauntered out of the Mess Hall. The crowd parted like water to allow her through. Some of the older boys even turned to watch her depart; the rest of them turned to me with questioning looks that I waved away.


	13. 13

Tension is the stored energy, the potential for what can be done. Hook the spring to keep the energy stored.

Press the latch to release the spring. Released too fast; too much energy at once. Need a control so that the energy is released at a constant amount to prevent the system from being overwhelmed. Easy enough.

Add wheels and axels for the energy to be spent in moving the body. Would they need to move? Probably not.

The movement would flip the car and wind up useless. Fixed axels it would be. Now what was next? Friction. Need to reduce friction. The ball bearings could be greased just a bit to make them glide more easily. There, perfect.

I pulled the toy car back along the table until I heard a click. It was a small replica of an old war cruiser Ride had found online. The he boy had been so excited about it that I'd even made a small gun that fired tiny pellets when a button was pressed. Innocently, I clicked the red button that loaded the pellets into the gun and released the toy. It whirred along the table, firing tiny beads at Eugene.

"Hey!" He shouted and tried to ward off the barrage with his empty plate. Shino laughed at him from across the table. Cups and plates rattled in the shuffle, drawing the attention of the others in the Mess Hall. Most turned away after a second and returned to conversations more interesting than our usual antics.

"Why am I always the one getting hit with things?" Eugene moaned pitifully. He picked bits of metal out of his blonde hair and dropped them in a pile on his discarded plate.

"Because you're the one who put soy sauce in my coffee." I shot back.

"I told you not to do it." Shino tried to hide his smile but failed.

"Liar! You're the one who thought of it in the first place!" Eugene gave me his best imitation of what a kicked puppy would look like, "And I'm the one who gets in trouble."

"Don't worry, Shino's day will come." I said in a monotone.

Eugene grinned and picked up the now motionless toy and turned it over in his hands. The guts of the toy were visible from the bottom and he and Shino both whistled at the number of tiny gears and pins that made the machine work.

"How do you know how to make these things?" Shino asked before handing the toy to me.

"I think my dad made stuff like this in his spare time." I brushed unused scrap metal and pins into a pile, they could probably be used for other projects. I didn't like to toss out potentially useful bits. Heck, the toy cars were all made out of old metal from accumulated odds and ends that I'd had to twist and bend into shape.

"Whenever I wanted to help him he would have me make little things like this until I could start helping out in the garage." I set the toy on the table.

Across the Mess Hall there was a small group of younger boys that had been watching me work. One of them darted over to the table as soon as I put the finished toy down.

He asked if he could have it. I said he could, but only if he shared it with everyone else. He agreed with a smile and he rushed back to the crowded table with his prize. That made the seventh toy in three days.

"You're going to spoil them if you keep this up." Orga's deep voice made my heart stop for the slightest of moments. Eugene and Shino snickered some shared joke, probably at my expense. I tried to ignore them, keyword being _tried_.

"A few toys never hurt anything. They deserve it after the weeks they've had." I replied while arranging the small set of tools I used for the cars into a pouch. They weren't the ones from my father's shop but they got the job done. I shoved the set into one of the many pockets in my work pants and looked up at him.

In one hand he held an E-pad, no doubt it held some spreadsheet for expenses, the other hand was shoved in a pocket. A lock of his hair fell in his face like usual, the rest was tousled like he'd been running his fingers through it. Sometimes, when he was deep in thought, he'd do that a couple times. Overall, Orga seemed more at ease than he had been in a while; leadership suited him.

Okay, maybe I was just a little biased, but only a little.

The group of younger boys watched Orga with wide eyes. They always watched him with those eyes. Always analyzing and imitating every move, nothing he did went unseen. I knew the pressure it placed on him. He covered the cracks well. So well that I think even he forgot they were there.

"What'cha here for?" Shino asked as Orga slipped into the empty seat beside me. The metal table rattled slightly when he sank onto the seat connected to it. I brushed the scrap pile away so he could set the E-pad down. Eugene got up, murmuring something about getting more coffee, and darted over to the kitchen where Atra was usually stationed. It was odd to be there without the sound of her cooking or washing something.

He returned with a large pot of hot water and the instant coffee powder in hand. I dumped heaping spoon-fulls into my mug and turned the water to the color of mud. Shino shuddered in displeasure at the sight. He and Eugene made much weaker brews than I could stomach. Orga opted for plain old hot water, as usual.

"Biscuit and I just met with Naze Turbine." Orga flipped through the spreadsheets as he explained. I hadn't seen the captain of the Turbines apart from the time on the bridge when our group had been at each other's throats. His white fedora and suit combination was hard to forget.

"Oh? What about?" Eugene asked. As the substitute ship captain, he had been part of the small group to meet with the Turbines after the ceasefire. While he was busy with tea and cookies we had been busy with repairs on the mechs and the ship.

"He's willing to act as a go-between for merchants so we can get rid of our loot from those run-ins with Gjallarhorn." The looted scrap we'd collected was a bit difficult to get rid of. There were a lot of traders we'd worked with back in the CGS days but we needed specialized merchants for some of the parts in our inventory. Namely the Ahab reactor from the Graze we'd cannibalized for parts when the Barbatos and Akihiro's Graze had been under repair.

"That's great!" Shino exclaimed in his usual manner. I swear the guy needed a volume dial. No concept of "inside voice" at all.

"Does this mean we'll have enough money for the guys back on Mars?" Eugene asked.

"Not sure," Orga turned the E-pad across the table, "This is the estimated value Ari put together. Naze thought it was an acceptable amount given the source and conditions."

There was something in his eye when he looked at me. I arched an eyebrow at him questioningly but he turned back to the E-pad. "Biscuit's recording a message to the base on Mars right now but it'll probably be a few days before we hear anything on the price we get."

The conversation quickly turned into a discussion of business and operating costs.

When work topics had run dry, Shino and Eugene steered the conversation to more embarrassing things. I had been able to make my escape at that point by saying I needed to ask Naze about something. Orga could fend for himself just fine.

He managed to find me again a few minutes later; he'd probably made up an excuse about meeting Biscuit. We walked around the ship for a while, just enjoying the silence until we got o one of the large screens that lined the outer walls of the ship

"Naze asked about you."

"Oh? What about?" I asked

We both leaned against railing that separated the walkway from the screen. His right arm brushed against my left gently enough that it wasn't obvious. Being on a ship full of guys you'd grown up with opened you right up to teasing; overt displays of affection were open invitations.

I absentmindedly flicked between camera views of the space-scapes around the ship before settling on one from a camera on the nose of the ship.

"Nothing big, just about what you thought of Tekkadan being a subsidiary of Teiwaz. I said he should ask you if he wanted to know."

I leaned against him a bit when he said that. I liked that he didn't try to presume to know how I felt about the company's next move. Of course, he knew I supported him and would tell him if I didn't approve of a decision. But he let me have my own voice and didn't try to speak for me. As a girl, growing up where I did, that meant a lot.

"Asked about your last name too." Now that was strange. I glanced up at Orga to look for any clues but his face was calm. I turned back to watching distant stars drift slowly across the screen.

"Huh, Why'd he want to know something like that?"

"No clue. But a while after I told him and Amida, she got up and left."

"From my name or are you thinking it's something else?"

"She didn't drop any tells when she left, but given how close her departure was to learning your name I'm thinking it played a part."

We were silent for a while.

I didn't think there was anything special about the name Tantas. Sure it sounded strange compared to Augus, Itsuka, or Griffon, but it wasn't the weirdest thing in the solar system. Heck, some of the Gjallarhorn families had funnier names than I did.

"You're worried?" He asked. I could feel his eyes on me. Normally I didn't mind, in fact I loved when he looked at me. But I couldn't shake the feeling that something was up.

"No, just curious."

"Liar."

"What?!" I jumped up and put my hands on my hips.

He laughed and poked my forehead with one finger, "You always get a crease right there when you're worried about something."

I snatched his finger and tried to maintain an outraged look, "Do not!"

"Wanna bet?" He grinned, "What do I get if I'm right?"

"Not taking any bets from you, Itsuka." I'd learned my lesson in that particular area years ago. Exactly what we'd disagreed on was a mystery but the punishment for losing had been gross. Imagine what a fourteen-year old boy could make up and you're on the right track.

"You're no fun, Tantas." He lightly tugged me back by the hand that I'd trapped. With a slight grin I let myself be pulled closer. For the moment we were alone and I was safe under his arm. More at ease than either of us could remember being.

"Maybe I'm secretly related to some old Gjalarhorn family. You'd better watcj yourself." I teased and poked him in the ribs. He snickered and moved away from the offending finger. Eventually I relented and reached out for his other hand; he willingly gave it up.

We were really flirting with danger there; if one of the guys saw us the teasing may never have stopped. Of course only I really cared about that, they would never dare tease Orga to the extent they teased me. I was lower in the social hierarchy, a bigger target.

But I could deal with it. There were always ways to get even.

"Whatever it ends up being, we'll get through it. All of us, all of Tekkadan." He said in that sure way of his. I believed him.


	14. 14

The Saisei was a Planetary Cruiser model ship that served as the headquarters of Teiwaz. Planetary Cruiser classes tended to be slower to accommodate a large rotating ring set around the middle of the ship that generated gravity for the thousands of people who lived upon them. This PC was a part of the Large subclass of the model, it had to have been able to comfortably host tens of thousands at once.

It was a bit impressive.

The Isaribi and the Turbines' ship, the Hammerhead, were docked in two of multiple ship-size hangars set between the nose and the ring of the Saisei. The other hangars held ships of all classes; from bulky cargo transports to sleek passenger shuttles, each had brands that designated their owners. There were no other ships labeled as being under the control of the Turbines, however.

Naze, the captain of the Turbines, wasted no time in collecting Orga, Biscuit, Eugene, Mikazuki, and our passenger: Kudelia Aina Bernstein. They had a meeting with the boss of Teiwaz to discuss Tekkadan's future under the wings of the organization as well as the continuation of Kudelia's passage to Earth. If we were going to get her to Earth we needed someone strong to watch our backs. No way Gjallarhorn would just sit back and not take a swipe at our base on Mars while the majority of our fighters were away on this mission.

I would have gone with them, but my duties as a mechanic were more important. Besides, Biscuit was with the group. He could usually keep Orga and Eugene from getting into too much trouble. When they listened to him.

"Stop day dreaming! These patches won't fix themselves!" Nadi yelled at me. I shook myself out of my stupor and back into the maintenance bay. The quick patches we put on the mechs after the skirmish with the Turbines were being fixed up. Turns out that repair jobs done by a tired crew of teenagers and children weren't very good. Our only goal had been to have the mechs operational in case Gjallarhorn caught us, not to have the mechs at peak condition.

During our ten-day down time we were on limited shifts to stave away fatigue. The younger kids were stressed and tired from the non-stop battles and repair from our first few days of space travel. Nadi and I had organized them into three new teams. Each would work no more than eight hours, with sixteen-hour breaks between on-time.

"Sorry Nadi!" I called down from the Graze. I was sitting on the mech's shoulder, repairing hasty soldering jobs. Ride sat beside me, stifled a snicker. He was a part of the morning crew, scheduled to be off in a few hours. I was supposed to be teaching him how to do it right rather than daydreaming of mafias and spaceships. We were talking about the different tips when we were distracted by how much the Saisei looked like the small tip we used for the small connections.

"I'll let you take over for a while. Just yell if you have any trouble." I carefully passed him the wand for the soldering iron and stepped back.

"You got it! I have it done in no time!" He said cheerily. Though excited, he calmly ducked into the exposed machine guts we had painstakingly taken apart minutes earlier. Methodically he moved from bit to bit, shaving and connecting just like I'd shown him.

Satisfied with his progress, I kicked away from the Graze. The teams worked slowly and surely through the hasty patches. Where we had been frantic and haphazard, we were now methodical and neat. Nadi was in his usual perch on the railing, looking over us like a mother hen. He reached out a hand to catch me out of my uneasy drift.

"How's everything looking?" I asked. The click of my boots reassured me that there would be no more drifting around.

"About as good as it could look." He sighed and rubbed the back of his head, "We need parts. All of our supplies are pretty much gone. Even the Graze is nearly out of replacements."

I nodded in agreement. The inventory lists were as red as the Martian dirt. Only odds and ends, like keypads and tubing, were still in the green. We needed to be on good terms with Teiwaz so we could restock from them.

Bad blood would result in higher prices. We'd seen our share of it in the CGS days when Maruba would offend our best suppliers. Poor Nadi had faced the brunt of both sides when the suppliers demanded apologies and Maruba raged about the price tags.

Throughout everything Nadi always remained calm. There were moments when the stress would get to him, as it would get to anybody; but for the most part he was unshakeable.

Questions and possibilities of my family swirled around and around in my head until everything was a confusing mess. Did Nadi know anything? Would I just worry him by asking? Should I let it go and pretend not to care?

"What are you thinking about?" He grumbled.

"Nothing." I lied.

Nadi chuckled a bit, "Haven't you learned? You can't keep anything from me; now out with it."

"You heard about Naze and Amida right? How they were asking about my last name?" I asked hesitantly.

He nodded but remained quiet.

I bit my lip and pressed on, "Is there anything I should know? About what my mom and dad did? Were they bad people?"

"No." He said forcefully enough that I jumped a bit. He let out a long sigh and looked long and hard at me. It was the kind of stare someone gave to a creature they couldn't help. I didn't like being looked at in that way.

"Your father was pretty tight-lipped about your family. Never spoke of your mother in all the years I knew him. But he was not a bad man. Odd, yes. But not bad."

My heart leaped at the word. "Odd" was bad. Being anything other than normal made you stand out; it made people notice you. If an odd person didn't have a powerful ally that made them an easy target for removal or acquisition. Especially in the neighborhood our old shop had been in.

"Do you know why people in Teiwaz would have heard of the name Tantas?"

"Honestly, it beats the heck out of me. Make yourself useful and note that we need to run drills on them." He handed me the E-pad that he'd been typing into.

"It could be that you just share a last name with someone they used to know." He offered after an eternity of silence. Tantas wasn't exactly the most common last name, but I tried to agree with Nadi's rationalization anyway.

Our conversation quickly turned to machines, a simpler and safer topic to be sure. Our touch ups were only getting us so far. A decent tune-up is what all of the machines so badly needed.

But we had worked with worse in the past. The room collectively groaned when Nadi started up on one of his stories of his younger days. Told to the same audience once or twice, the stories were exciting and held the ears of listeners in thrall. Told multiple times in the span of a month and the dashing feat of cobbling together a gun from scrap became monotonous.

The E-pad in my hand flashed with a new message screen. I held it up to Nadi in hopes of distracting him from his tale.

"What's this?" He took the pad and slowly worked through the letters, mumbling the words softly to himself. He'd never been a particularly great reader but he knew enough to get by.

"If I'm readin' this right, then the business meeting went well." He said.

"When can we expect parts and repair?" I asked.

"Hold on, there's more: To make the entrance of Tekkadan into Teiwaz official there was to be a Blood Oath Ceremony. All of the senior crewmembers are expected to attend."

"Date?" I asked.

"Tomorrow, looks like." We read through the rest of the message together though it only contained timetables for resupply and visits from the mechanic crews of Teiwaz. The most interesting bit of news concerned the Barbatos.

The Barbatos was being moved to a different hangar for a special tune-up while the ceremony took place. Apparently the Teiwaz boss had taken a liking to Mikazuki during the business meeting and offered to upgrade his mobile suit, completely free of charge. The Gundam frame specialist insisted that the upgrade be done in the Teiwaz hangar to limit the need to transport materials and save time, of which we were highly supportive.

Within an hour of receiving the message we were swamped by mechanics of all sorts. Our crews gratefully stepped back and watched with keen interest as the older men worked.

The Teiwaz mechanics worked with an efficiency that only came with years of experience. Like a single mind they worked to move in machinery, tools, and supplies. My job as a monitor quickly proved to be unnecessary.

"How did you kids find this guy?" One of the mechanics asked without looking up from his task. Oops, my starign must have been a tad too obvious.

"Actually our former president found him in the middle of a desert on Mars." I was grateful for the conversation. Nadi was engaged in a different part of the bay and the rest of the guys were all out at one of the bars Eugene had scoped out.

"Get out!" He actually glanced up to give me a look that made me think I'd grown a second head, "You're kidding, right?

"Nope, Barbatos was actually our power generator for a while. Back on the base." I squirmed nervously under his gaze until he turned back to his job. I followed him as he walked around the hangar to find another tool. He was working to remove the armor on the lower portion of the Gundam's leg.

"This thing is practically a treasure. To think someone would just let it rust out in the desert and then hook it up to languish away as a generator. Some people just don't appreciate a good machine." I hoped he didn't consider me a part of that group of people.

"Yeah, so do you know a lot about Gundams?" I asked. Any searches I'd tried on the public databases came up empty. I only knew that the Gundams had been vital to ending the Calamity War, and that there were only 72 of them ever created.

"Not much other than how to take care of them. I can tell ya that they ain't cheap machines. Even some of the noble families out on Earth can't afford to keep 'em up."

What was the point of a machine if it was too expensive to maintain?

"The real expert'll be around later, he might be better at explaining things than me." I took the hint and retreated to Nadi's side.


	15. 15

Guards stood at attention at every corner, every entrance, and every window. Some had obvious weapons, others didn't. Everything was a part of the show, the image Teiwaz wanted to set. Even criminal organizations weren't free of spies or members with fragile loyalty. Anyone could become a threat and needed a reminder of the consequences. Just like our own Todo had turned when it became convenient.

That morning Nadi had volunteered me to attend the ceremony in his place, claiming he had to be present for the upgrades to the Barbatos. Though I knew the real reason was that he felt out of place at upscale events. I was only slightly put off by not being able to talk to the mechanic about the Gundams, seeing the guys struggle into their ceremonial robes managed to brighten my mood.

The ceremony itself was to take place in one of the larger meeting halls, cleared of tables and chairs and the like before we arrived. The decorations were minimal and mainly consisted of large banners bearing the names of our two companies beneath the name of Teiwaz. All meant to symbolize our entrance into the fold.

The unease I'd held about Teiwaz had decreased, somewhat. I still didn't like the idea of joining in with a gang even if it was for the good of everyone counting on Tekkadan.

"How the heck do you put this thing on?" Noah whined. He was struggling with part of his robes, there was a small clip meant to fasten the two sides of the garment together.

"You start by not being hung-over." I gave in to his pleading looks and fastened the clip myself. The previous night had been full of parties and drinking, and it showed on more than a few of the guys.

"It was fun though." He grinned.

"So I've heard." I said. Twice I'd been treated to an in depth description of the previous night by both Noah and Eugene, and I had a creeping feeling that Shino would be next in line for story telling.

"You should've gone out with us. You would've had fun instead of being stuck in the hangar all night."

"Some of us actually like working on the mechs." Though it was really ony Yamagi, Nadi, and I who were working on the machines at all hours. I couldn't imagine willingly going more than a day without pulling a machine apart to figure out how it worked.

"Give me a good old boarding party any day. Last night Shino was telling us abou–"

"Nope! Shino's bad enough sober; don't tell me what he said drunk."

"Miss Aurora." Kudelia appeared behind me, Atra trailed a little behind in her effort to keep up. Kudelia was fully done up in a sleeveless, floor length black gown with matching gloves that reached past her elbows. She looked every bit like a proper lady and made me conscious of my own attire beneath the ceremonial robes. I resolved to buy proper civilian clothes as soon as I could. Maybe Atra would be willing to go with me.

"Yes?" I asked. Noah quickly busied himself with patting down his unruly hair; he probably hadn't properly combed it in weeks. At least most of the guys had bathed before boarding the Saisei.

"Have you seen the boss around? I need to discuss something with him and Mr. Barriston." Her expression was a sober one, but much better than the melancholy she usually wore.

"He's with Mikazuki and Naze." I nodded to a small hallway wher I had left Orga that morning. He'd been a sight to behold after his night of festivities. A cold shower and strong black coffee had done him some good, but Naze couldn't help but laugh at his haggard appearance. He'd assured me Orga would be presentable in time for the ceremony before leading him away down the hallway.

She thanked me and departed.

"She seems a little different today." Noah whispered beside me.

"Impolite to gossip." I said.

"I'm being serious!" He smiled so I would know he wasn't truly outraged.

"He's right," Atra spoke up, "it's like theres an incredible burden she thinks she has to carry all by herself."

An attendant arrived to inform us that the ceremony would begin shortly. The Tekkadan members shuffled around nervously until the women of the Turbines led the way into the Hall. Atra left us at the door, she lacked seniority would not be attending the ceremony.

In the hall, Tekkadan and the Turbines arranged ourselves in two columns beneath our respective banners. A small dais with two simple cushions stood between us. Orga and Naze would sit there during the ceremony. Of course, they had to actually be present in order for anything to happen.

From Biscuit's side I had a full view of the entryway that remained conspicuously empty of our missing members. I nervously glanced toward the door as if I could will them to appear. Amida caught my eye from across the Dias, she smiled and winked at me.

Be patient, the obvious meaning behind the gesture. Right, I couldn't let my emotions be so easily read by others. Even in a room full of allies, there could be one individual who could do incredible damage with the right information.

No sooner had I nodded my acknowledgement than the doors of the entryway parted to reveal a large man. His hair was fully gray and his mouth was fixed in a genial grin, his eyes were fixed on the dias. The formal robes he wore

McMurdo Barriston, one of the most powerful men in the outer system. To be honest, I was expecting someone more intimidating.

When he passed the first of the Turbines, she bowed. Others followed suit, Tekkadan just a fraction of a second behind. We only straightened when he came to a stop above the dias.

Behind him came Orga and Naze. The two wore traditional robes: black tops with long sleeves simiar in style to our own robes over light grey bottoms.

I tried to contain a smile from spreading too wide when I saw Orga. The robes were impressive; they made him look more formidable than our uniform of cargo pants ever could.

Naze and Orga kneeled on the cushions laid out on the dias and faced each other. The attendant who had shuffled us into the hall arrived with a small white vial and two saucers. It was part of the custom that the two parties would exchange drinks to symbolize the pledging of loyalty.

Mr. Barriston recited the pledge that Orga and Naze were agreeing to make. The pledge that would tie together our two groups as equals and pass Tekkadan under the wing of Teiwaz. While he spoke I noted that Kudelia had taken up a position slightly behind Mikazuki. Her choice of placement demonstrated her alliance with Tekkadan.

Orga and Naze raised the saucers to their lips and drained them.

"From now on, Tekkadan and Turbines are as brothers." Mr. Barriston proclaimed before calling the ceremony to a close. Orga and Naze stood and bowed to head of Teiwaz, after a single heartbeat everyone else followed suit. As one we filed out of the hall and into the reception area.

"What did you think?" Amida caught me before I could go too far into the room.

"It was nice, I've never been to anything like that." I replied, an easy friendliness settled between us.

"Mr. Barriston is fond of traditional ceremonies like this. You'll see quite a few of them under Teiwaz."

We spoke about the maintenance crews that had worked through the night on our battered mechs. I informed her that all of the repairs were going smoothly and thanked her for helping quicken their schedule. We exchanged more pleasantries and arranged a shopping expedition into the clothing district before our departure.

I excused myself when I noticed Orga out of the corner of my eye. She smiled knowingly and waved me off.

"How's that headache?" I asked. We stood on a balcony slightly separate from the rest of the room. The interior of the Saisei stretched out and around us.

"Not so bad anymore. Remind me never to do something like that again, would you?" He leaned his elbows on the railing.

"Why not? You were pretty cute last night, going on and on about Tekkadan being a family and giving us a place we could call our home."

He sputtered a bit from being so caught off guard, "I thought you were asleep when I came in."

"I _was_ until you stumbled into my room like a Mobile Worker. Oh don't turn red, it was funny." And the situation had been a little ridiculous. The big tough Orga reduced to a clumsy fool so easily.

"Besides, you didn't say anything around me. I heard about your speech this morning." I said.

"Told by who?"

"It's a secret." I touched a finger to my lips. I would never rat out Biscuit so easily.

"Where's Mika? The Gundam specialist is with the Barbatos. Mika might want to be there to make sure everything gets tuned up the way he likes." It may even make the upgrade move faster to have Mikazuki there to answer any questions Nadi and I couldn't.

Mikazuki turned out to have slipped away with Biscuit after I started talking to Orga. Orga changed into the less formal but more street appropriate Tekkadan uniform and together we tracked the two of them down to the maintenance hangar to which the Barbatos had been moved. It proved to be an easy find; the steady stream of specialty parts was a dead giveaway.

It wasn't often we were told to sit back while another mechanic worked on our most expensive machine. I was surprised Nadi even wanted to be present for it, he'd probably be fretting over the Gundam the entire time the specialist was working on it.

Mika leaving for the hangar wasn't that unusual, he would often end up there to help us out with the more physically intensive tasks. Biscuit, however, was a different story. He would help out, of course, but as Orga's right hand man and the most diplomatically minded of our group he should have stayed back to see to any loose ends on the business front.

The hangar was small inside, designed to hold a single mech for maintenance rather than the small army the one in the Isaribi can hold. The Barbatos stood in the very center of the hangar, completely devoid of the patchwork armor we'd slapped on it. Mechanics buzzed around the mech with specialized tools and materials that probably cost more than the Isaribi and all of our equipment combined.

Nadi, looking like a nervous mother, watched the repair from an observation deck that stretched around the hangar. Yamagi stood quietly by his side looking particularly gloomy.

The gravity was lessened in the maintenance bays to ease the movement of heavy objects. Orga and I switched from walking to the awkward floating motion. Mechanics with heavy tools slipped by us with practiced ease that made my jerky motions seem even more graceless than usual.

To his credit, Orga didn't tease me about it.

"Hey old man!" Orga called out. Nadi reached out and caught our hands to halt our forward momentum.

"Well, if it isn't our big bossman himself." Nadi slapped him on the back. Yamagi nodded at us and then cast his gaze back onto the workers. I tried to see what he was looking at, but failed to figure it out.

"How was the ceremony?" Nadi asked.

"You could've known for yourself if you'd gone!" I said.

"Ah," he rubbed the back of his head, "you know those kinds of things don't sit well with me."

"How's the maintenance going?" Orga asked.

"Now that Mika's here, much smoother." He nodded toward the head of the Barbatos. Mika and the Gundam specialist hovered around the head of the mech. While the specialist gesticulated wildly while describing something they were doing Mika calmly listened. It was pretty amusing to see.

"Have you seen Biscuit at all? I need to ask him something." Orga asked.

"Oh, he went up to the bridge a little while ago. Something important came in over his E-pad." Nadi explained.

Orga excused himself and hurried to the bridge. Something important must have happened for him to leave so suddenly.

I turned back to the Barbatos, "It certainly does look naked without all of its armor." I said.

"That it does, I'm just glad it's off of my hands this time."

I grinned and bumped his side, "That's not what it looked like when we came in."

"I'm surprised you noticed anything else when Orga was with you" Nadi teased.

"Wh–what?" I stammered in shock. Who did he thing I was, some storybook teenager mooning over an inhumanly attractive guy? Impossible.

But the idea sat in the back of my mind and nagged at me, "I don't actually moon over him do I?"

Nadi laughed hard at me, "No, of course not."

Yamagi huffed softly. Something certainly seemed off about the boy. He was normally pretty quiet, but the huffing and solemn gaze were out of character.

A clang rang through the the hangar and drew everyone's attention, even Nadi's. some poor man had dropped something and was being chewed out for it. New mechanics tended to drop equipment more often than the veterans. Eventually you learn how to hold on when a tool bucked or you found another job.

"You okay?" I asked softly when was distracted.

"Fine." He mumbled. Definitely not fine, but it wasn't by business to pry.

I turned back to Nadi, "Did you have a chance to ask about the Gundams?"

"Hmm?" He thought for a moment, "Oh, the specialist doesn't know much about the history behind them. Says he focused more on how to put them back together and keep 'em running."

I must have visibly deflated because he hastily added that the specialist had mentioned a scientist who'd been working on mass-producing Gundam frames.

"What? But the Ahab reactors make it impossible!" It was clearly a made up story. No one could keep the reactors synced up without a lot of maintenance and money. That's why the Gundams were so rare to begin with.

"He said the scientist was a genius, he met them once. Apparently the Teiwaz boss tried to hire them but was turned down in the end. The scientist ended up being discredited and was almost executed by Gjallarhorn for their work. "

It made sense that Gjallarhorn would get involved in something like that. They didn't want anyone to challenge them for dominance in space. A power such as a Gundam, even one that was mass-produced, would be too much of a threat to take lightly. Mr. Barriston was probably lucky the scientist refused his offer.

The scientist was probably working for Gjallarhorn by now. They probably offered him a deal to work for them. He would've been crazy not to take it.

"Yamagi, what's the status on resupply?" Nadi asked.

Yamagi pulled an E-pad out of one of his pockets and flicked through, "Looks like it's nearly done. We should be good to move out by tomorrow." He said.

"Good. Aurora, let the bridge know that the Barbatos may take another full day to finish up. Mika and I'll stay to supervise things. Make sure that Specialist doesn't go overboard with the upgrades."

"Got it." I hurriedly pulled out my own E-pad and typed everything down. Nadi added a few notes to my list before sending me off.

I hurried through the corridors to the Isaribi. The loading crew was busy arranging cargo into the hold. Yamagi's list had shown last minute additions to our list. Our trip to Earth was the perfect opportunity to ship an order out to the Dort Colonies.

Dort was a series of manufacturing colonies that served as distribution points for all the goods that moved between the Earth and the outer planets. They were under direct supervision of Gjallarhorn. The main reason we were trying to avoid stopping there.

The sole occupant of the bridge was Biscuit. He looked agitated about something he was typing. An uncharacteristic scowl stretched across his face.

"Status report from Nadi." I said. He started a bit at the sudden noise and a tension wound his shoulders tight.

"Oh, Ari. Thanks, I was wondering how much the extra cargo and the Barbatos would set us behind." He downloaded the list to the main computer.

"Is that why you're so tense?" He took his job seriously but he only looked like his when something was wrong.

"No, blame Gjallarhorn for that." He pulled up a report from Teiwaz. It was a map of the shipping lanes from our current position to he Earth. All of them were red. No good.

"So Gjallarhorn has everything locked down. Are we going to risk the unofficial lanes?" That was a risky idea.

"Yeah, Orga left to talk to Naze about it. We're going to discuss it more when we get moving." He quickly pulled something else up.

"Ari, this just came in for you. Any idea who it's from?" He moved a mail file from the main computer to my E-pad.

"Anyone who would send me mail is on the ship." I opened the file to see the sender. I had to sit down when I read the name.

"It's from Mr. Barriston."

"What?"

 _Miss Tantas,_ It began. _I regret being unable to meet with you during your stay aboard the Saisei as I have heard many good things about you from your crewmates. I am writing to you with regard to your family name. After you read this you may think me a crazy old man, but I assure you that the story you are about to read is true. It's about your mother._


	16. 16

We departed the Teiwaz home ship with a new alliance, restocked supplies, and one less Barbatos. The upgrades were taking longer than expected and with our tight schedule, we couldn't afford many more delays. We parted with Mikazuki and Nadi with the full expectation that they would catch up to us within two days.

Of course, the absence of the head mechanic shifted the hierarchy of command. Yamagi and I were pretty much in charge of cargo and machine maintenance. Even though the ship had been fully repaired during our stay, there were plenty of routine jobs to be assigned to idle hands. The most important of which was running a diagnostic check on the nano-machine in the med-bay.

The nano-machine was a neat piece of tech that was mandatory for all long term space travel. In the event of serious or severe bodily injury, the nano-machines would assist and augment the body's natural repair response. I wasn't sure about the particulars but the machine we had on the ship operated by using a previous full body scan as a blueprint for repairs.

The full body scans had taken place during one of the long travel days before we'd arrived at the Saisei. No one had been particularly fond of that day, but it would be worth it in the even that anyone suffered a life-threatening injury.

Of course, the machines couldn't reconstruct limbs or digits. They were best used to to fix gaps and repair soft tissues; at worst they would be used as life-support until a patient could be moved to a hospital.

I hoped we never had to use it.

The system check I was running was pretty simple. Our resident computer genius, Dante, had re-written some bit of code that made the interface more user-friendly. He's tried to teach me how to write it a few times but I never quite got the hang of it. I could navigate around a computer system like any common person, but the guts and codes just didn't make sense to me.

"There you are!" I jumped at the sudden noise.

"Oh, Biscuit. What's up?" He stood in the doorway. He must have just come from the business meeting on the Hammerhead. Orga told me they would be discussing possible routes today.

"Are you busy? We need you on the bridge for a moment." He said.

"Just a second, the scan's almost complete." There were no errors highlighted in the diagnostic log but I sent them off to Dante for a manual check. There was no way I would take a chance with this equipment.

"Okay, lead the way." I slid my E-pad into a pocket in my work trousers and followed Biscuit through the halls.

"So, have you read the rest of the letter yet?" He asked. Here we go again.

"Nope." I'd closed the message as soon as I saw the word "mother". There was no good explanation other than I was acting on impulse.

"Why not?! This could be your chance to learn more about your family!" When I shut the message Biscuit had asked me what it was about. I repeated the first couple of lines for him before admitting that I hadn't read the whole thing. We'd argued about it a bit and I even took up avoiding him like a child, hoping he would forget about it. Obviously my plan failed.

"I don't know! I honestly have no good explanation for you." I admitted. There was no point in lying to Biscuit, he could always tell when I wasn't being honest. That's the one major flaw in having a best friend.

"You were so excited when Naze and Amida were asking about your family. You've been questioning Nadi and fretting over it for weeks. And now when you have a clue right in front of you, you shove it away." He stopped a few meters away from the Bridge and lowered his voice so our conversation wouldn't be overheard. I stopped beside him and crossed my arms. There had to be a way to distract him from this topic.

"Maybe I'm scared of knowing the truth! I have a pretty nice little bubble around me right now–"

"Guns, Gjallarhorn, and all?" He interjected.

"Guns, Gjallarhorn, and all." I agreed.

"Okay, Just promise me you won't delete it?" He relented. I thought over the promise, it'd be easy to keep and wouldn't require further action I was unwilling to take.

"Promise." I offered my pinky finger.

He took it and added: "And I'll be there for you when you decide to read it."

"Deal."

The bridge was quieter than I was used to, only Dante worked at one of the control consoles. The other occupant of the room was new to me. She was typing something into an E-pad. Everything about her indicated she was an office person, from her meticulous dark blue suit to the styled blonde bob cut.

She looked up and smiled when we entered, "Biscuit, I thought you were bringing the head mechanic?"

"Nadi is back on the Saisei, with one of our Mobile Suits. Repairs were taking longer than originally planned." I answered before Biscuit could, "I'm the acting head mechanic in his absence."

"You're a little young for that responsibility, don't you think?" She smiled. I could play this game.

"I let my experience speak for me, rather than my age," I put a hand on my hip like I'd seen Amida do, "Now what was it you wanted?"

"Ms Stapleton is acting as our liaison to Teiwaz, she's putting together a budget list." Biscuit cut in before we could really get going. He was good at stopping bad situations before they had a chance to start. I guess irritating our direct line to Teiwaz too thoroughly would have been a bad decision.

"Yes, I was hoping you could give me an inventory list of the cargo and the repair bay?" She smiled.

"Dante could have probably pulled it up faster than I can." I said while I located the files and connected them through to her E-pad. Dante could locate any file you needed, most times while you were still asking.

"I figured I would meet the head mechanic while getting the list, two birds one stone."

I waited while she looked over the lists. People said I could be standoffish at first, why start proving them wrong now?

"I'm Merribit Stapleton, by the way. I'll be with you throughout the rest of your travels to Earth." She walked over to me with an outstretched hand.

I took it and said, "Aurora Tantas. Nice to meet you. Would you like the medical inventory as well?"

"Oh! No, Biscuit already sent it over to me. Why would you have a copy?"

"Oh! I should have told you, Aurora is the head field medic as well as second mechanic." Biscuit said. He'd been so quiet I almost forgot he was in the room.

"Isn't there a–"

A blaring siren interrupted her. She didn't jump at it, a good sign, but her look of confusion betrayed her. She may have had experience but she wasn't comfortable in combat situations.

"That's the emergency signal. Who's out on patrol right now?"

Biscuit ran to a console while I explained the situation to Merribit.

"What's going on," Orga barged into the Bridge room and paused when he saw me and I noticed his refusal to look at Merribit, "Ari, why are you up here?"

A stream of situation updates overpowered my explanation.

Fumitan, Kudelia's maid and solemn constant companion, was hot on his heels. She slid into the communications console and went right to work without needing to be asked. Eugene showed up not long after. He barely spared a second glance at Merribit and I. He may be a big goof most of the time, but when it came to business he had the ability to be serious.

"Akihiro's Graze and one Mobile Worker left the bay an hour ago." Biscuit said.

Since our surprises earlier in our journey Shino, Mikazuki, and Akihiro rotated patrol shifts to scout out enemies. Paranoia was useful when the most powerful organization in the solar system was gunning for us. It was not useful when it left our scouts stranded beyond immediate assistance.

"We've received intel from Akihiro, He's engaged with three unknown machines at some distance." Fumiton said.

"What's the distance?" Orga dropped into the captain's chair.

"The distance is 1600." She said.

"Eugene, can you make a shot?" Orga asked.

"Not without risking Akihiro and–"

"Takaki's in the Mobile Worker!" Dante must have pulled up the departure logs.

Damnit, Takaki didn't have combat experience and the leash for connecting a Mobile Worker to a Mobile Suit isn't suitable for combat. He'd been logging hours in the simulator lately but nowhere near enough to be ready for space combat.

"Ask the Hammerhead for backup." Orga shouted.

"Roger." Fumitan said

"The Barbatos has a long range comm system, they should be en-route to us. Biscuit, can you get a message out to them?" I added.

"On it." Dante said, "Hold on. There's a new Ahab Wave signal."

"What?!" We all shouted.

"It's coming from behind us!"

"Wait, that's… Barbatos." Fumitan said in her steadfast way.

"He's disengaging from the transport shuttle. I'll prep the hangar."

While I sped through the halls I ran through the different scenarios that could play out. There were overarching themes to each situation and I didn't like any of them. I nearly slammed into Shino on the way. I shouted a sorry and kept going.

"Ari, what's happening?" He regained his footing and followed me.

"Akihiro and Takaki were ambushed while on patrol. Mikazuki managed to pick up the distress call and is en route to assist." I gasped between breaths.

"What are we prepping the hangar for?" He quickly picked up on why I was in such a rush.

"Two Suits and one Worker. We need a large enough area in case of injuries." We parted at the entrance. Because the younger crew members were being drilled on Mobile Worker maintenance that day, I anticipated a mess. Yamagi, however, had already started to end the drill. Boys were flying across the hangar storing tools and clearing space for the mechs.

"Yamagi!" I called out, "prep kits two and four."

I picked a comm-set up from where they were hanging on the wall. Biscuit and Dante switched off giving updates about the battle and the status of Akihiro and Takaki.

"Mika's engaged the enemy, Azee and Lafter are on their way as well." I called out. A collective cheer rang around the hangar. I settled for audio updates rather than pulling up the video feed. The cameras on the Isaribi wouldn't be able to capture anything from our position.

In the frenzy of the hangar, I almost didn't notice Kudelia. The girl was standing around looking like she wanted to help but didn't know how; completely different from the person who had been at the ceremony the other day. The transformation was jarring.

The headset crackled with news that the enemy suits were on the retreat but all I could hear was my headset, "Ari, Takaki's mobile worker was taken by the enemy machines."

I had to steady myself on the railing. They had Takaki. How could Mika leave without Takaki?!

"Aurora?" Kudelia asked tentatively. Eyes wide with apprehension, she started toward me but I held up a hand to stop her. There was more information coming through the comms.

"We have custody of the mobile worker." I let out a breath I didn't know I was holding.

"There is external damage to the frame, Takaki is unresponsive and presumed to be unconscious."

"Kudelia," I knew how to handle this and I knew what to do. I had to keep telling myself that. I couldn't let them see how scared I was. I let my body settle into the calm mask that I wore in situations like these.

"I need you to go out of the hangar and to the left. There's a medical supply kit in one of the specialty storage rooms. Do you know which rooms I'm talking about?"

She nodded quickly for me to continue, "I need you to get the med kit with the word TRAUMA in big bold letters. Can you do that?"

"Yes." She said and dashed away.

"Shino, get the extraction saw ready. There's structural damage to the Mobile Worker." Yamagi pointed him in the right direction.

Someone called out that the Graze was in the loading airlock. I swung myself over the railing and waited for the Graze to be automatically locked in before kicking myself toward the ground level. A crane removed the mobile worker and set it down in the space that had been cleared earlier.

The only sound in the hangar came from the extraction saw. The Mobile worker was seriously damaged, in the back of my mind I noted that it would only be good for scrap material. The cockpit hatch was bent beyond function. Shino was working on cutting a hole where the armor was weakest.

People from the Bridge began to trickle in. Dante bounded over the railing and grabbed a jack to help prop open the sections Shino was cutting.

I kicked away grabbed a medical kit and waited.

"Got it!" Shino's voice wavered. That wasn't good. If the boys saw one of their leaders crumble, we would lose all order. I had to take over.

"Shino." My voice cut over the worried mumbling that had grown up in the moment. They all hushed while I spoke, "Take him out nice and easily. We can't risk further injuries."

I looked out over the crowd of scared faces. I needed to assigned duties or I would lose them.

"You and you," I pointed to two older boys, they didn't seem as frozen and would probably react faster. They started a little at being called out, "Assemble the stretcher. You remember where it is?"

The hours we'd spent on drilling paid off; they rushed away without a moment's hesitation.

Shino and Dante laid Takaki out on the ground. Takaki, usually energetic and eager to help with any task, was crumpled and limp like a child's forgotten doll. His blonde hair, bleached on top from days spent in the Martian sun, was plastered to his forehead. His face was pale from blood loss that I hoped wasn't from an internal injury.

I pulled on sterile surgical gloves from the kit.

"Takaki, can you hear me?" I checked his eyes for a response. The pupils dilated from the light but there was no other response.

I pulled back the zipper on his normal suit to check for bodily injury. I wasn't prepared for the amount of blood.

"There's so much blood." I heard a few voices wavering. Cursing to myself, I quickly closed the suit up. Without a bandage he would bleed out, the suit had been stopping the flow. A few of the older guys started to shift nervously. The youngest crewmembers picked up on the emotion and a few started sniffling.

"Snap out of it." I shouted, "Where's that stretcher?"

I could _not_ afford for them to lose focus or dissolve into hysterics. Takaki couldn't afford it.

The two boys I had tasked with the stretcher laid it down next to where I kneeled by Takaki.

"I need bandages and the plasma transfusion pack." I said to Shino. He had influence over the guys, if I kept him focused and working then the rest would follow his example.

Kudelia should have gotten back by now. Where was she? I glanced up and scanned the room for her distinctive blonde hair.

Nothing.

"Dante, go turn on the nano-machine."

"Yes Ma'am."

"A doctor's coming from Naze's ship! Stabilize him until then!" I hadn't noticed Orga come into the hangar until he spoke. One look and I knew he was incredibly frightened. That was fine, everyone was focused on Takaki and me and no one would see Orga's momentary lapse. If they did then he would only seem more human to them.

"Where's that trauma kit?" I called out. Kudelia was taking too long.

"Right here." I looked up at the unexpected voice. Merribit set it down beside me and pulled on gloves of her own. She was calm and knew what she was doing. That was good; we didn't need more nervous energy in the hangar.

"His blood type code is 0–8AB We'll run an IV after we stop the bleeding."

She nodded and set out the plasma pack.

I put my hand on the suit zipper. "Ready?"

The blood floated up in half dried globs, smaller droplets floated up and away.

Together we cleaned away the blood so that a bandage could adhere to the skin around the wound. We worked fast and without words as if we were an old team. We cut away more of the suit to search for any severe wounds we had missed an applied liberal amounts of disinfectant before bandaging the most grievous injuries.

"Shino, help Merribit get him to the nano machine, I'll clean up here." I said while Merribit and I shifted Takaki to the stretcher. It was over as quickly as it began. Orga followed the stretcher out to the medical room. I trusted Merribit and Dante with transferring Takaki to the nano-machine

"Alright. I want this area cleaned up, and that mobile worker prepped for disassembly. We won't do any good just standing around."

Movement would keep them from dwelling on what had just happened. It would also keep them away from the medical room for some time while Takaki rested.

I gathered all of the clothes and bloody instruments for disposal. Someone held a biohazard bag open for me to put the soiled items in. I didn't notice who it was.

"Aurora your shirt." Kudelia found me again. She looked pale and trembled a bit. Shock. The poor thing had probably never seen so much blood before. Seeing her like that made me regret my earlier irritation. It was so easy to forget that not everyone lived lives like ours.

In the excitement, I hadn't noticed how much of Takaki's blood I had gotten on my clothes. Some part of me remembered that it was a biohazard so I threw it in the bag with my bloody gloves. The space suit I was wearing preserved my modesty.

Not that anyone would have cared.

I snapped out of it when the airlock siren sounded again. That would be the Barbatos. Mika must have gone after Nadi and the transport shuttle. Last I'd checked, he was flying an erratic path in the general direction of the ship. He probably could have docked by himself but Biscuit had sent Mikazuki after him, just in case.

"You okay?" I asked as I helped the big mechanic out of the shuttle.

"Remind me never to do that again." He replied.

"I don't think any of us want to do that again." I rethought what I told Biscuit earlier. Maybe I wasn't fine with this life I was leading.


	17. Interlude

In all of his years, Noah had never felt so damn useless. Frozen, silent, _scared._ That was how he'd been when one of his crewmates–no, one of his family had been broken and dying.

She'd even looked right at him and chosen someone else to act. She'd known he was scared and that he probably wouldn't have been able to move if he wanted to. He'd failed her.

Aurora. She was anything but frozen. When the fear was nearly tangible in the recycled hangar air She'd acted. Her voice had cut above the budding hysteria and restored a form of order. She was the light that let them through the darkness. Takaki was alive because of her strength.

She and Noah were on completely different levels, he didn't realize that until after the blood had been cleared and the quiet order of the hangar restored.

The destroyed Mobile Worker that had been taken on patrol was being disassembled for spare parts. Noah threw himself at the task, just wanting to be useful in some way. He wanted to show Aurora that he could help, that he could be strong like she was.

"Kid, you've been at it for hours." Mister Yukinojo, the head mechanic of Tekkadan, tapped him on the shoulder. "The next shift is here. Take a breather."

Noah didn't even know what time it was, but supposed he could use something to eat even if he was too sick with himself to think of food.

"Yes sir." He carefully tagged the small sensor he'd been working free of a mess of wires. Noah was about to leave the hangar when curiosity overwhelmed him. Instead, he turned to Mr. Yukinojo.

"Sir, you've known Aurora for a long time right?" He asked.

"Sure, since before I brought her to CGS. Why?" He answered without looking away from the Mobile Worker. A deep scowl distorted his face.

"What was she like when she was younger? Was she ever…" He fumbled for words, "did she ever hesitate."

The big man considered him for a moment before releasing a deep sigh, "She was a brat just like the rest of you. Always getting into fights, losing them, picking more."

He paused before continuing. One of the Mobile Worker's operational guns was being removed. Noah was beginning to wonder if he should leave when Mr. Yukinojo continued.

"Things leveled out when Orga and Mikazuki showed up. Then Biscuit came along and that was that."

"What d'you mean?"

"When she was off of death's doorstep, Aurora was a very angry child. And she had a right to be. Everything was taken from her, the whole world fell around her."

Noah never knew her back-story. Aurora never told anyone about it. He doubted anyone other than Mr. Yukinojo and her closest friends knew about her past. Before CGS, Noah had known kids who'd lost everything. They burned with an intensity that either ate up everything around them or drove them.

From the moment he'd met Aurora, he had never seen her angry. Irritated yes, especially when someone broke an expensive tool or didn't do what they were told, but never angry. In fact, she was usually calm. As if she knew everything that was going to happen and how to react to it. It was one of the many things he admired about her.

"When Ari met Orga something happened. She worked harder, tried to learn as much as she could. I think she wanted to prove something. The person she is now is a result of that."

Of course. Of course she'd changed after meeting Orga. The two of them were a complementary pair, almost like Orga and Mikazuki were. During the CGS days, Orga and Aurora protected the boys of the Third Army, even when it would have been easier to turn away. Those two never gave up; they never ignored a cry for help. It seemed natural that they would shift to a more involved relationship after the downfall of CGS.

Mr. Yukinojo walked away to help the deconstruction effort. Noah drifted aimlessly through the Isaribi in deep thought. The man hadn't really answered his question; at least not outright. But maybe the answer was hidden in what he'd been told.

The ship was quiet. Everyone was either in the hangar, the Bridge, or in the medical room. He had no business being on the Bridge and he didn't know Takaki particularly well, bothering him seemed out of the question. His growling stomach sent him to the Mess Hall. To his surprise, another person had ended up there as well.

Akihiro Altland: leader of the Human Debris boys, the pilot who'd been out on patrol with Takaki during the ambush. He'd looked crestfallen even after seeing Takaki awake and responsive hours earlier. Not that he looked particularly happy on a regular day.

Noah grabbed a bowl of stew from a pot that simmered on a burner and sat at Akihiro's table. Any other day he would have chosen to sit at another table and quietly eat his food. Continuing his contemplation would have taken precedence over checking up on Akihiro.

"How're you holding up?" Noah tried to be friendly, though he didn't expect a reply from the guy.

"I'll manage." The reply made Noah pause, spoon midway between the bowl and his mouth. He lowered the spoon and looked at Akihiro. The other boy was staring at an untouched bowl of cold stew, his eyes looked a thousand miles away.

"I heard about what happened with the other pilot. I'm sorry." News traveled quickly around the ship. Akihiro's long lost brother piloted one of the enemy Mobile Suits that ambushed Akihiro and Takaki. The head honchos of Tekkadan and the Turbines were planning the revenge move. Now that he thought of it that was probably where Aurora was.

"That's what happened when you're Debris. You don't get to choose who you fight or who you fight for." Human Debris was a term Noah despised. It was wrong to buy and sell humans as if they were unfeeling tools. Used and abused until they were broken and replaced; that was the life of Human Debris.

"You're not Human Debris." He emotion behind his words caught both Noah an Akihiro off guard; "The Boss essentially tore up any documents tying you to that title right?"

Akihiro nodded and eyed him.

"Then that title doesn't apply to you anymore. You're just Akihiro Altland, Mobile Suit pilot of Tekkadan."

Akihiro grinned ruefully and bowed his head, "I appreciate that, but it's more complicated than you think."

"It's not!" How could he make this guy understand?

"Have you ever been called something until your ears rang? Had it beaten into you until it was stamped on your bones?" The severity in Akihiro's voice mad him pause, "Because that's what it's like to be Human Debris, to know that you only exist to be useful and nothing else. Happy endings don't happen for Human Debris like me."

"You're wrong." Noah looked him right in the eyes, even though he desperately wanted to look away, "Tekkadan is going to free your brother and all of the other Human Debris those pirates have. And then you're going to realize that you're anything but a piece of garbage."

No one in his family would feel like they were less than human any more. Noah was going to protect them, like Aurora protected the Third Army boys. Maybe if he faked that he wasn't scared, if he pretended to know what to do, it would become reality.


	18. 17

It was chance that a pirate gang known as the Brewers had picked up our scent and ambushed us. It was luck that we could hit them harder than they hit us.

The Brewers were the special kind of scum that used human debris, people ripped from their lives and sold as slaves, to do their dirty work. Any payback would hurt the wrong people, innocents with no motive to attack us other than orders from their owners. We couldn't strike blindly, it had to be directed and efficient. Kill the captors and free the prisoners. The typical prison break storyline, only this time the characters were flesh and blood.

Soon after Takaki woke up, the Turbines had received a message from the Brewers: Surrender Kudelia Aina Bernstein or face the consequences. It was a very cliché villain message. We refused, of course, and have been wary of an ambush ever since.

In the days following the Brewers' ambush, the Turbines sent out multiple patrols to locate the position and trajectory of the enemy ship. Unfortunately, there was no trail to be found. Even Lafter, the pilot who'd fought to a stalemate with Mikazuki during our initial run in with the Turbines, had been unable to find the tiniest clue.

"Couldn't you have sent Eugene or Shino to get me? Why come all the way down to the Hangar?"

Orga and I walked through the halls of the isaribi. He'd fetched me from the maintenance hangar where I was working with Akihiro to fix a minor bug in the Graze's thrusters. One was just a hair misaligned, placing strain on the other thrusters as the computer worked to correct course. Nadi and I planned to install the AV-system from the ruined Mobile Worker into the Graze, if we ever hit a calm patch long enough to do it properly.

"Figured I'd use a chance to check in on you, see how you're holding up." He stopped when we reached a deserted hallway. A ball of warmth sprung up into my chest, such a pleasant change. I'd seen so little of him in the past few days; we weren't keeping the same sleep schedules anymore because of our duties.

"Shouldn't I be asking you that question?" I folded my arms and took a step closer. We both had a tendency to put work before everything else, even food and sleep. So much rested on the success of this mission and neither of us wanted to disappoint our comrades. So we keep moving forward.

"You haven't stopped since patching up Takaki. Are you alright? You know you can tell me if something's wrong."

I raised an eyebrow at him. Was he fussing? I wasn't sure how to react to that so I stepped forward and wrapped my arms around him. I could hear his heartbeat speed up a bit.

"I'm fine. Just a little tired of patching you guys up all the time." Was I selfish to wish for the safety of my family? I wished I could tell him how scared I was every time our guys went out to fight. I couldn't let him think that I had any doubts; it might hurt him. Orga was under so much pressure I just couldn't bring myself to add to it.

He wrapped his arms around me after a moment, "It'll get better. When we get big enough we'll only take legitimate jobs. Just hold on for me until then, okay?"

I couldn't look him in the eyes, "Yeah."

I wished we could have stayed like that longer, but there were things to be done. "What's this about a mole in Saisei?"

"So you heard about that?" He smiled ruefully.

"It's not exactly a big ship; secrets get out." I shrugged.

"That's the only explanation Naze and Amida could find. The route we're taking is only known to the Turbines' navigational officer." Orga replied.

"Damn, I figured Teiwaz would have some moles due to its size. I didn't think they would affect us."

"Yeah." I looked up at Orga, he had a fierce look in his eye. The last time he had that look had been when the Third Army was abandoned to be decoys so the First Army could escape Gjallarhorn's assault.

"You have a plan don't you?" I grinned at him.

"Of course." I missed that self-assured voice.

There were eight of us spread around the display table in the Bridge. On the screen was a map of the shoal zone we were passing through. Varying shades of green marked the debris density; the lighter the color became, the denser the field. There was a lot of light green. A thin line stretched through the map, on it were two small dots representing the current positions of the Isaribi and the Hammerhead.

I stood between Orga and Biscuit. Across from us were Eugene, Kudelia, her maid Fumitan, and Chad.

Chad was serving as the Navigation Officer and had arranged much of our course before we met the Turbines. Now he got the exciting job of making sure the ship didn't wander off into a debris cloud. His gaunt face and haunted eyes made me wonder if the job was taking years off of his life.

"According to Ms. Amida, the Brewers are planning to ambush us when we pass through this zone." Biscuit pointed to a light green patch. It would take the Isaribi fifteen hours to arrive on our current course.

"So they're going to use the debris zone." Fumitan said. If the maid thought anything about the Brewers' use of dead machines as a cover she didn't show it. Sometimes I wondered if she had any emotions at all.

"This patch we're in is all from the Calamity War. All of the Mobile suits, ships, and weapons that were too damaged to salvage congregate here. There is a way through it, like a secret corridor." Biscuit explained.

"Why did it all clump together like this?" Chad asked.

"The ahab reactors in the suits might still be functional. The gravity they generate is probably just strong enough to pull everything together over time." I replied. Ahab reactors were amazing pieces of technology that could manipulate gravity waves and somehow generate energy and assist in inertial control on ships and mobile suits. The way the reactors worked was a closely kept Gjallarhorn secret. If it ever got out the organization would lose both its tight control of the mobile suit market and a fair bit of money.

"The reactors do have a long shelf life. Many of them are reported to be fairly operational. But only gangs that are strapped for cash actually try to salvage them. According to Teiwaz reports, the reactors explode pretty easily if they're damaged to the degree most of these ones are." Biscuit said.

"Wait why are the Ahab reactors creating gravity?" Kudelia asked. She had a look of such genuine curiosity that I almost scolded Eugene for voicing his surprise that she didn't know what the reactors were.

"The reactors were developed as an answer to long distance space travel, when the cost of fuel became too great to be considered worth the expense. The gravity generated by our own Ahab reactor allows everyone to survive the long journey without the medical complications that used to limit space travel." Biscuit must have done some digging through the Teiwaz Database. There were perks to being a part of a powerful criminal organization; one of them happened to be access to classified reports and information.

"I had no idea. That's amazing!" I had to remind myself that not everyone grew up around machines.

"Forgive me, Miss Kudelia, I should have explained things to you in much greater detail." Fumitan whispered.

"Anyway, the fluctuations in gravity levels through the shoal zones prevent ordinary ships from even attempting to pass through the corridor." Biscuit continued.

"Obviously the Ahab waves interfere with more than just movement. It's impossible to detect the enemy's location with all of the interference." Orga said.

"But why would we take such a dangerous route? Wouldn't it be better to do around the shoals and look for a path with less risk?" Chad asked. I had to admit, he had a point. The dangerous route might discourage any enemies from tracking us, especially the big ships Gjallarhorn favored, but it also increased the likelihood that something would go wrong on our end.

"That's exactly why Teiwaz had this route mapped out. It's a shortcut to Earth and it's incredibly useful for highly secretive jobs, like the ones we have." Biscuit explained.

"If they're hiding out there and we know where they are, why don't we just attack them first?" Eugene asked.

"Head on? Isn't that what they're hoping for?" Chad cut him off before he could continue.

"No," Orga folded his arms, "We shouldn't do that even if we wanted to. Average ships can't fly through the debris zones. And they'll be expecting the crew of the ship to be average, they won't expect the pilots to have the Alaya-Vignana System augmenting their reaction times."

"I think I know what you're getting at." Eugene grinned.

"Okay, but how are you sure the Brewers are gonna be out there? Isn't it impossible to locate them because of the interference?"

"That's a good point," I said, "They might assume we'd avoid the shoals all together. That's why the Barbatos is being outfitted with a long-distance booster. Mikazuki and Lafter will play the scouts, making sure the coast is clear for the ships following behind." An animation began to play on the screen. Two dots, representing Mikazuki's Barbatos and Lafter's Hyakuri, moved toward the ambush spot.

"Right, they'll think the Isaribi and the Hammerhead will be following close behind. That's our advantage." Biscuit finished.

"By using a long range machine we'll confuse them and throw off their sense of distance." Orga explained to Kudelia.

Biscuit launched the animation again. Two more dots, representing our ships, appeared in the shoal zone with a collision course trajectory with the Brewers' ships, "While the Brewers are distracted by what they think is behind Mikazuki and Lafter, we'll have the opportunity to launch our own ambush."

The meeting ended shortly after the reveal. Our timetable was reduced a bit by the change in course but we'd worked under smaller margins. I was about to leave to explain the new plan to Nadi when I was stopped by a light touch.

I turned my head a bit to see who it was, certainly not Eugene or Biscuit. They would have just shouted at me to hold on. Orga was too busy being bossy.

"Kudelia?" I asked. Why would she want to talk to me? We hadn't exchanged more than a few words at a time.

"I wanted to apologize for the other day." Her arms were folded and her shoulders were turned in a bit. Didn't look too proud of herself.

"Hey, it happens. All that matters is that everyone is fine." I'd dealt with guys in Kudelia's situation before. They hesitate or freeze and don't arrive on time. Then they beat themselves up over it for days, months if the wounded person didn't survive.

When bad things happen we take a step back. We build walls and dissociate from reality. We pretend that the bad things aren't happening to us, they're happening to some character who looks exactly like us. Sometimes people don't come back from the dissociation.

"I shouldn't have frozen like that, it's just there was so much blood an –"

I cut her off before she could work herself up any further, "Kudelia, you weren't the only one who hesitated in that room. It's hard to see a friend and crewmate get hurt that bad."

"I promise it won't happen again." She said.

"Actually, after this is done, would you mind if I asked you a few questions?" I wanted to know more about what she was fighting for. Why it was so important.

"Oh! Um, sure!" She didn't expect that. Fumitan exited the Bridge and guided her off to change into a normal suit. Couldn't be too careful with the VIP passenger.

I watched the two of them leave and wondered if I was even the right person to hand out reassurance. Sometimes the person I made myself become was very different than the person I actually was.

I'd stepped back when Takaki was injured. He was so like biscuit that seeing him in a critical condition jarred me. They were so alike, both wanted to do what was best for their family and friends and gave everything they had. Seeing one broken and bleeding made the other all the more fragile.

Takaki had a sister. He had a sister who depended on him for everything. She almost lost him. Takaki lived because we were lucky and had a working nano machine; not because of any skill or talent on my part. Life and death was all up to chance and luck, like everything else in the world.

As I made my way to the hangar, I wondered when our luck would run out.

"Docking with booster, completed." Mikazuki's voice came through the headset. His departure marked the halfway point to the ambush zone.

"He's all set, let's get those Mobile Workers prepped." I called out to the crews. If all went as planned, we would dock on one of the enemy ships and release a payload of invaders. My stomach dropped when I thought of docking a fast moving spaceship onto another spaceship. Hopefully Eugene didn't kill us all.

The Mobile Workers sat in orderly lines, tubing pumped fuel into their tanks while they waited to be moved into dispatch position. They wouldn't be given too much ammunition today. Getting the guys onto the ship in one piece was the extent of their use.

I turned away and looked at the Graze. It was an ugly patchwork of replacement parts; the stop at the Saisei hadn't been able to cure that. I couldn't help but be self conscious of the aesthetics of the mech. The outer design was a result of the inner design as much as it was a result of the vision of the designer. A beautiful, balanced machine was the product of painstaking attention to detail. That my project was a ramshackle mess spoke volumes.

My thoughts turned to the missing Gundam scientist. The person who had attempted to mass-produce gundam frames before disappearing. What would they think of the Graze? Would they see it as an abomination in need of rescue; or would they understand that necessity trumped aesthetics when lives were at stake?

I didn't quite know why I cared about the approval of a person who was probably dead. A person who wanted to mass-produce a weapon used to end the worst war in human history.

There was so much power in a "common" mobile suit such as the Graze, I couldn't begin to wrap my head around a line of mass-produced Gundams. Even if the suits lacked the full set of bells and whistles that were intrinsic to prototypes such as the Barbatos, they would be incredible killing machines. Whoever produced them or could afford the largest army of them would effectively rule the solar system or end the human race.

Maybe it was a good thing the scientist never completed their work, or that they never implemented it.

"There you are!"

I blinked and started a bit at the sudden noise. I looked up to see Shino floating down from the Graze's cockpit. Akihiro must have been there.

"What're you doing Shino?" I reached up to offer him an anchor to land with. He took my hand and planted his boots firmly on the deck. He was suited up in assault gear, a gun strapped across his back. My chest tightened at the sight of it.

"The usual rounds, making sure they know which end to point at the enemy." He grinned.

"Maybe if you didn't make them run so many laps around the ship they'd know a thing or two about the guns."

"Nah, they're all hopeless." His grin faded a bit. This act was an old one; meant to keep him from showing how nervous he was. He didn't want to think about who might not come back from the mission.

"How was Akihiro?" Shino must have been speaking to him before coming down to me.

"Hard to tell, he's probably feeling a lot of things right now."

"Yeah." It didn't take a long time for news to spread about Akihiro's brother. It was an awful situation to be in, to have a brother you'd sworn to protect be on the enemy line. It was just more incentive for us to beat the Brewers.

"Hey, have you talked to Noah? The kid's been acting strange."

"Isn't that how he usually is?"

"No, I mean, he seems more upbeat than usual. Keeps talking about how we're gonna save those kids those Brewers have as Human Debris. Not that I'm complaining, it's good to have someone keeping the spirits up. Just curious is all."

"Not me. Maybe he read something in those book files we picked up at Saisei."

"Maybe."

Around us the hangar buzzed with activity. It was the usual rhythm we settled into before a fight. Nadi watched everything from his post on the observation deck. He'd given the order to remove fuel lines and load the Graze into the launching airlock.

"We'll be entering an area of dense debris, any impact could cause the ship to shake. All crew should be on alert." Fumitan's voice came through the overhead comms. This was it then

We would be close to the release point for the Graze. Akihiro would be moving out before we got within ramming range of the Brewers. He would be intercepting his brother's suit and pulling it out of the line of fire. Amida and Azee would be running support for Lafter and Mikazuki as well as interference in case any of the other mobile suits decide to go after Akihiro.

"You'd better go. Things are gonna get interesting pretty soon." I told him. Shino clapped me on the shoulder, nearly knocking me off balance in the process. I punched his arm in revenge.

"Remind me to work on your punching when we get back." Shino teased as he pushed off toward his old pink mobile worker.

"Remind me to work on your manners." I shouted back. The big oaf.

Back to business, I'd been distracted for too long. I ignored the pressure behind my eyes and the stabbing protests of my empty stomach. I'd take care of sleep and food later.

"Ari, get ready to deploy Akihiro's Graze." Biscuit's voice crackled over the headset. I signaled Nadi, who nodded an affirmative and gave the order.

The ship shuddered from a collision with a large piece of debris but the crews never wavered. The Graze was moved into position and the airlock closed around it. As a unit, the mobile workers took their own positions to be loaded after the Graze deployed. Everything was running as planned.

"Akihiro Altland, Graze, moving out." A cheer went through the hangar as the update came through. It was always a good feeling to have a successful launch.

"Mobile workers, line up!" I ordered over the headset.

"All crew brace for immediate impact." Fumitan called over the comm. This was it. The Isaribi shook violently as Eugene latched onto the enemy ship like a parasite. We unloaded our infiltration team and hoped they would all make it back in one piece.


	19. 18

An object in motion will stay in motion unless an outside force stops it. Human life isn't so different from that theoretical object. We all keep moving until an outside force stops us. No matter who or what we were, death meets every one of us in the end.

In our line of work, death is the only certainty we're given. Food, shelter, friendship, they can all be taken in the flash of a second. But death, death is always there to greet you with her cold embrace.

Death can also be an initiator, the spark that starts a fire. If not for the death of my Father I would be a mechanic at a shop on the outskirts of Chryse. Maybe I would be flirting with some boy my father hated, or maybe saving up for the entrance fee to some university to make something of myself. Instead I became a very different person: guarded, standoffish, and afraid to get attached to someone because of Death's looming specter.

Orga's rebellion and the hope he gave us started to chip away at that fear. I got attached and I paid the price for it.

"Let's go, guys!" Shino barked into his headset. This was what he lived for, the rush of going into battle with his buddies by his side. Okay, maybe there was a newfound thing to live for too but the battle part was definitely still number one.

He pushed his pink mobile worker toward the enemy ship. Their own ship, the _Isaribi_ , had docked on the ship of their latest enemy: The Brewers. The gang of space pirates chose the wrong group to pick a fight with, especially when _he_ was in charge of the boarding party.

Their job was simple: get in, secure the captain, and minimize casualties. A lot of the crew was made up of Human Debris kids who were sold against their will to be gun fodder. They just happened to be on the wrong side, Shino wouldn't fault them for something beyond their control.

"Group Two, split off from us when we breach the hull."

"Yes sir." The headset crackled a bit from the number of replies. He couldn't blame them for their excitement seeing as he felt it too.

The region they'd deployed to had the thinnest hull coverage. It was away from any important spaces and likely was between the maintenance bays and the sleeping quarters. It would be easy to blast through but they faced a fight up to the Bridge. Group One would focus on securing the Bridge while Group two established control over the rest of the ship.

An alert pinged on his screen: the enemy's Mobile Suits were trying to turn around and defend their ship.

"Hurry up guys, our hosts aren't friendly to party crashers."

"Almost there." That was Noah; the one Ari wanted him to keep an eye on. It was strange for her to take an interest in anyone. Maybe old Orga would have to step his game up a bit. Shino grinned and thought about the ribbing he'd give Orga over it.

Finally the hull shuddered and gave way beneath the unrelenting guns of his Mobile Workers. One by one his squad filed inside as if they'd practiced. Shino couldn't help but grin again.

Group Two split off to secure a control panel. Group One was a smaller force of only Dante, Noah, Shino, and Chad. Smaller groups made smaller targets, and smaller targets were harder to hit.

Overall the Brewers' ship was similar in build to the Isaribi and was likely to have the same routing. That meant that all of the guns and ammo were smack dab between their current location and the Bridge.

They picked their way down the halls in classic formation: one member of the team would act as the cover fire while the rest took the corridor. They didn't end up needing the tactic until they were fifty meters from where the ammo closets should have been. Then the shit hit the fan.

Shino threw himself against the corner and propped the gun up to fire, a steady barrage of bullets delayed their advance. When he heard a lull in the fire he signaled for an advance.

"Go!" He shouted while laying down cover fire. One by on enemy solders dropped to the floor. Most put up no fight at all. The Brewer's ship shuddered from some outside attack. Shino had to hurry if he wanted to keep the battle from getting too bloody.

The further they advanced the higher the bodies piled.

"It's like they aren't even trying." Noah murmured into his headset.

"Come on guys! I thought Brewers were supposed to be tough!" Shino grinned as he lobbed a grenade at a gunman who'd given away his position a little too eagerly.

"Wait, check all the doors. We don't want any surprises on our tails." Shino gestured toward the door. It hissed open to reveal a room full of scared kids. Some of them were shaking from fear.

"Hey guys, it's okay. You're all safe now." There was no way they'd hurt kids. They were probably on the damn ship against their will anyways. They were probably Human Debris, and new ones from the looks of them. If they weren't already decked out in normal suits then they wouldn't be much of a threat.

Shino ducked out of the room to continue toward the Bridge, it had to be close by.

"We'll be back for them lat–" he was cut off by the rattle of gunfire.

"Shit!" Noah swore and clutched at his arm. Chad pulled Noah away from the entry way and Dante opened fire on the kids before Shino could even think about stopping him.

"Dante, wait!" But it was too late. The gunfire stopped and there was silence of the oppressive type.

Shino swore. Noah clutched at his arm but assured the rest of the team that he was fine and would get patched up later. There was no time to lose.

The pain made his world dull around the edges. Something wet dripped down his arm and pooled in the elbow of his suit. If they didn't stop the bleeding Noah was pretty certain he'd bleed out. But he couldn't be weak and tell anyone, there was something more important going on and he needed to be a part of it. He had to be a part of it.

Ari would have worked through the pain. Hell, she'd probably have pulled the bullet right out. Noah could feel it inside of the meat of his arm. The bone wasn't broken but he certainly wouldn't be giving out any left hooks that day. That was fine: guns only needed one hand anyways.

He blinked a few times to clear his vision before following after Shino. They were so close to the Bridge, so close to taking control of the group that had hurt Takaki. He wouldn't freeze this time.

No, this time he would do what had to be done. He'd shoot that damn leader himself if he had to. A little blood loss wouldn't slow him down. No way.

With one hand clamped over the hole in his suit Noah pushed off after the others. They were so close to the Bridge that they could hear the panicked shouts of the crew. Noah hoped that meant Mikazuki and the pilots from the Turbines were winning their own battles.

Shino signaled a stop at the next corner. Bulkheads slammed shut throughout the ship and sealed his team off from any surprise guests. Took them long enough too.

Shino's headset buzzed, "Shino, there are two armed individuals between you and the Bridge. We managed to seal off everyone else."

"I hear ya." Only two more and then he could take the head of the ship. Once he did that the battle would be over. Shino glanced back at his team: one injured and low-ammo all around.

They'd have to make this quick.

Noah stepped forward with a flash grenade in hand. Shino followed his thinking and nodded.

The guards barely had time to shout before the small explosive blinded them. One of the two guards opened fire, killing his own crewmate in the process. Dante shot off a couple rounds around the corner until the enemy fire ceased.

"Team Two, open up that Bridge."

Things were going according to plan; even Noah's wound had stopped bleeding.


	20. 19

After Shino's team secured the Brewers' captain and flagship, Mikazuki brought down their main mobile suit. A Gundam Frame judging by it's Ahab wave signature. Unfortunately Akihiro's brother, Masahiro, was lost before the final blow was delivered.

Death is the way we pay for our sins. That was what the soldiers at CGS would whisper after a particularly bloody job. Those with more sins ended up with the more gruesome death. I guess that was how they made peace with sending children to their deaths. I didn't believe a lick of it. Too many good-natured kids had died on my table for it to be true.

The toll of the battle was higher than anyone could have expected, and none of us knew what to do with the bodies. On Mars a grave could be dug and a few words said to ease the pain of their passing; space provided its own challenges. So, the bodies were moved into an empty room on the Isaribi.

The room, normally used for equipment storage, was filled with small linen-wrapped bundles. Each bundle, Tekkadan and Brewer alike, represented a life that had ended before it could really begin. I couldn't cry. I wouldn't cry. To do so would show weakness that I couldn't afford. But the wall wasn't as strong as it used to be and a few tears slipped through the cracks.

I cursed at myself when one landed on the tablet beside Noah's name.

"It's my fault this happened." Shino knelt beside me. He was helping to wrap the fallen in spare linen. Every soldier he lost chipped a piece of him away. I hurried to wipe away the tears but I knew he saw them.

"I gave the orders and made them risk their lives. I wasn't good enough."

This attitude wouldn't do if we were going to make it to Earth. I put my hand on his shoulder, "Shino all of these guys knew what they were getting into."

"Yeah, but if I had –"

"She's right, don't disrespect their memory by saying their sacrifice is your fault." Mikazuki appeared in the doorway. He was so quiet I didn't even hear him approach.

"I should've noticed the blood and made him stand down. It's my fault he died." Shino sobbed. I pulled him into a hug and he sobbed into my shoulder.

"I shouldn't have asked you to keep an eye on him. No one can control what happens on the battlefield. I'm sorry I gave you that burden."

I looked at the room again and then back at Mikazuki, "Any news from Orga?"

"Yeah, there's a meeting on the Hammerhead."

"Alright," I stood up and pulled Shino to his feet, "Shino, why don't you go with Mikazuki to the Hammerhead? I'll finish up here."

Shino needed to be doing something, he needed to feel useful and he was not going to get that in a room of dead bodies. I ushered them out of the room and sealed the door behind me.

Then I walked; aimless and numb. I walked until I reached the opposite end of the ship, as far away from Noah's body as I could get. And then I stopped.

Noah's cause of death replayed through my head, cold and clinically. He'd died from blood loss after getting shot in the arm. Nobody noticed him pass out until after the captain of the Brewers had been captured. There was no one to fault for his death. Even the shooter was just trying to save himself and no one can blame a scared kid for that.

The first few times I was allowed in the field to do first aid and field medicine I was overwhelmed. The iron tang of blood and the acrid smell of piss from the dead and dying haunted me into the nights. I came close to quitting and hiding in the repair bays more times than I could count. For some reason I stuck around.

Days like today made me wonder why.

I flipped absentmindedly through camera views on the screen until I found one that showed the path ahead of the Isaribi. Somewhere up past all of the debris and Ariadne cocoons loomed Earth and the end of our job. Would the losses today be worth whatever awaited us? How could we keep asking people to risk their lives for a goal that seemed so far out of reach?

I looked at the masses of debris and wondered whether the dead bodies of pilots were still encased in their cockpits. Condemned to float forever in a debris field.

"There you are, what 'cha thinking about?"

I tensed up at the sudden question in both surprise at being disturbed and reluctance to talk about my thoughts. Would he pull away from me if he knew I had doubts? Could I risk that?

Orga stood behind me with an arm on either side; were it anyone else those arms would be a cage, but for him they were walls in the way of any threats. I felt some of my fears subside in that moment. As long as Orga was here we could do anything. As long as he led us we would be unstoppable; now I needed to make myself believe that.

"The usual: all the people we lost this time around, repairs to the ship and mechs, Shino…" I trailed off.

"Yeah, I get it." He was silent for a while. We stood there for a while, just enjoying a moment of peace and each other while we could.

"What do you think about having a funeral?" He finally asked. I paused for a moment. A funeral would mean spending time in a zone that could have sparked radars for hundreds, if not thousands, of kilometers. It was a risk.

"It's a good idea." There was a lot of pain going around right now and we needed to be clear headed for whatever was next.

"You too, huh?"

I turned toward him and realized his face was very close to mine. I'm sure I blushed, it was almost impossible not to with his lips so close. "You don't think it's a good idea?"

"We should press forward. If we stay in place for too long we risk drawing in more attention. We made a lot of noise today, someone is bound to pick up on it before long."

"The benefits are worth the risk."

"Bu–"

"Let me explain." I put a finger up to his lips. He arched an eyebrow at me in response making my stomach flutter in a way it shouldn't after a battle like this.

"Everyone's emotions are really high right now. This is a way for them to make peace with the dead and for the dead to let go of their pain. The only way someone will notice a disturbance out here is if they know exactly where we are and where to monitor."

"That's what Merribit said before, that a funeral would help the dead move on." Orga looked over my head and out onto the starscape.

"She's right." The force behind my words startled me for a second before I latched onto it. I'd gotten so good at hiding my pain from others that I guess I'd started hiding it from myself.

"I didn't think you'd take her side so quickly."

"Orga this isn't about sides," I struggled away from him so that I wasn't pinned against the railing, "It's about the mental health of our crew. You saw Shino, imagine how the younger guys feel right now."

"We should be focusing on our job, on the living. Not on the dead." He stepped forward to move around me as if this ended the conversation.

Like hell it did.  
"Dammit Orga, listen to me." I grabbed the side of his collar and held on. Orga tried to shake me off but I shifted my hips to throw his balance and pinned him to the rail. He wasn't going anywhere.

"Do you even care about this family?"

"Of course I–"

"Then prove it." I shocked myself nearly as much as I shocked him. I can't remember ever getting up in Orga's face like that. It was insubordination. Cause for termination of my position in Tekkadan.

I was spiraling down into the thought when he kissed me.

"Alright, let's give this a shot."

We used an empty storage crate as a coffin. The dead were given gifts of money, toys, and candies to take with them into the afterlife. The living were given closure, or at least some of them were.

The liberated Human Debris from the Brewers' crew congregated with majority of Tekkadan on the nose of the Isaribi. The normal suits made it impossible to distinguish between the old and the new members of our crew.

Biscuit stood by my side in the Bridge, together we watched as the last of the gifts were placed into the makeshift coffin. Orga was stooped over Chad's shoulder watching the last minute preparations. In any other situation I would have noticed how wide his shoulders were, or the lines of muscle beneath his jacket. On any other day I would have wondered how long until I could get him back to our room. On any other day we wouldn't have to send our lost friends into the cold embrace of space.

He turned to take the captain's chair when Naze signaled that they were ready outside. The doors of the coffin were sealed and the anchors binding it to the ship's hull were released.

"Okay, everyone bow your heads and pray for the souls of our dead comrades so that they may find their way to where they belong and be reborn."

We bowed our heads as the coffin was pushed away from the ship. When it was just a small white dot in the distance Orga ordered salute shots to be fired. The artillery shells erupted into gigantic flowers made of what had to be ice crystals. The petals unfurled from the center of the explosion and reached across the horizon. Stretching defiantly against the press of space.

I let a small smile creep across my face at the sight of them; I knew Yamagi's handiwork when I saw it. Nadi must have helped him put the missiles together.

We thought the flowers would never wilt. They were too big, too brilliant, and too real to ever fade away. There were sounds of dismay when the ice shards passed too far from the explosion center for the shape to be kept. The ice flowers were gone as quickly as it had come.

Those gathered on the ships hull began to wander back into the ship, a few trailed behind. Akihiro was one of them, his bulky silhouette obvious among the stragglers. He'd lost his brother as quickly as he'd found him. The Graze's battle cameras showed Masahiro pushing Akihiro away from the Gusion's war hammer. My heart ached at the loss; so many of us longed for our own families that his pain was communally felt.

I blinked a tear away, Biscuit pretended not to notice. The email that remained unread was pulled back into my mind. Maybe it was time to open it.

"Ari, did you hear me?"

I was so deep in my own head that I didn't hear Biscuit talking right beside me. "Sorry, what did you say?"

"We have a meeting with Naze on the Hammerhead in a few. Nadi said you would be able to go in his place." He paused, "Is everything alright?"

"As good as it can be at this point." I glanced at Orga, but he was busy speaking to Naze on the intercom. Biscuit and I left him behind and made our way through the halls of the Isaribi to the transport shuttle.

"I wonder how many more of us will die before we finish this job." Biscuit's word echoed the thoughts that hid in my heart. I believed in Orga, we all did, but Orga was only human. There was only so much he could protect us from and plan for. His brilliant mind could only work so far in advance. Eventually someone was going to shake the box and he wouldn't be able to lead us out of the resulting mess.

Biscuit was my oldest friend; books had brought us together and Orga's schemes were what kept us together. He was the only person I trusted to keep Orga from running us into the ground.

I leaned against the rail of the shuttle. It was small and box shaped; three-quarters of its walls were glass and definitely would not hold up to sustained fire. I drummed my fingers against the rail while I went through a full assessment of why the shuttle couldn't defend anyone in a firefight.

"It's not your fault you know." He said suddenly.

"What? That the engineer behind this damned shuttle was more focused on aesthetics than on functionality?" I grumbled.

"About Noah and everyone else. You're good at what you do, Ari, but sometimes bad stuff happens and no one can stop it."

"Not even Orga."

"No, not even him." He agreed solemnly.

Since writing Noah's name on the list of those we'd lost I'd blocked him out of my mind. It was something you learned to do when one of the job requirements for CGS was that you had a surgery with a high failure rate. You took whatever feelings you had and pushed them deep down until you forgot both them and why you had them. Sure in the long-term it probably wasn't healthy and a lot of the characters in the adventure novels had to deal with the aftermath of bottled-up emotions. But in the short-term? In the here-and-now? It worked damn well.

At least that's what I told myself.

What if a person's ability to push away painful things had a limit and I'd reached mine?

I was pulled from that logic path when Eugene and Mika stepped onto the shuttle, followed by Merribit and Orga. Mika observed Eugene attempt to flirt with Merribit who, to her credit, refused to answer his advances.

Orga ignored the scene and walked over to stand with Biscuit and I. They discussed something but I wasn't listening. I didn't even notice the shuttle start to move until we arrived at the Hammerhead. Mindlessly I followed Biscuit and Orga through the halls of the hammerhead, not hearing anything but the rush of blood through my ears.

"Aurora. Are you alright?" Merribit whispered. She matched her stride to mine and fell into place beside me.

I blinked as if suddenly realizing where I was and composed myself, "I'm alright, just thinking about all of the repairs we have to make."

She seemed unconvinced.

"And with that we're set to sell off the acquired mobile suits." Merribit said cheerily.

"Good work." Naze replied, nodding at Merribit.

We were in a lavishly decorated private meeting room within the Hammerhead. Priceless works of art hung on the walls or sat behind boxes of thick glass. Real, dark wood paneling graced the walls and spoke as much to the wealth of the ship's owners as to their taste; much nicer than a certain former-president.

Though there was more than ample furniture to seat our entire group only Merribit and Orga chose to sit. Biscuit, Mika, and Eugene positioned themselves behind the two while I leaned against the arm of a sofa, mirroring Amida.

As much as I admired the woman something about her left me on guard. It was as if she could see through any and all of my defenses and always knew what I was thinking. Her eyes missed nothing.

"Thank you," Orga began, "Not just for the spoils, but for the funeral too."

"Don't worry about it." Naze replied. He pushed himself to his feet and turned to Amida. Just the way they looked at one another made me want to turn away out of embarrassment. When they broke into a deeply passionate kiss it was all I could do to keep from jumping out of my skin. I immediately became incredibly fascinated by the soft, rich leather of the sofa.

For a painful amount of time the only sounds came from the hurried breaths the two interlocked lovers took. Whatever I had been feeling before was easily tamped down by crushing embarrassment. Eugene was the first to break the stunned silence.

"Wh-why are you suddenly kissing? Am I the only one who's incredibly confused right now?"

They continued for a long enough time that I wondered if they'd even heard Eugene's exclamation. Thankfully they stopped.

"Don't you know? Years with high death-rates also have high birthrates."

I looked at Biscuit but he shrugged his shoulders, equally confused.

"After so much loss sometimes people feel like losing themselves in something. The woman next to you becomes incredibly attractive." Naze explained, but I could tell we were the last things on his mind.

The graze suffered damage to the upper appendages and armor. It needs a full retuning and the thrusters need another realignment. I can't forget to have the armor buffed so that the nano-laminate armor coating goes on evenly. Otherwise we'll have to strip it and that could set us back days if not a full wee–

"Ari."

I blinked and looked up, "Yes?"

Orga towered over me when I was standing, kneeling on the ground made him look like a giant.

"You've spent the past ten minutes undoing and redoing your boots."

I looked down sheepishly, "You're not wrong."

Not even a second after the words left my mouth I was scooped up and set on my bed. While I was stunned into silence, Orga knelt to undo the latches of my boots. Then he moved on to my jacket, which he folded and set with his own on the unused desk. Wordlessly he cast off his ragged red scarf and old shirt, the fitted suit beneath did nothing to hide the curves of muscle that bunched and relaxed as he moved.

I slipped to my feet and stepped over to him. Gingerly, he pulled my shirt away and began to work on untangling my braid. I could see the concern in his eyes, the questions he wanted to ask.

His long fingers tugged on the buttons and zipper of my pants. My skin prickled at the memory of his touch even though his fingers never left the fabric. For all the dexterity in my hands, I wasn't as careful when it was my turn.

My face prickled and burned but I didn't break eye contact. Instead I leaned against him, wishing the thin fabric wasn't such a pain to remove. He wrapped his arms around me and cradled me against his chest.

"I won't tell you it's okay. And I won't tell you to stop crying. What happened is wrong and I wish I could go back and fix it, but all I know how to do is press forward. I can't promise no one else will get hurt. But I do promise that one day we won't have to lose anyone else."

A lump in my throat choked my words into a sob; so I nodded and let Orga guide me back onto the bed. I pushed my face into his chest and tried to image we were anywhere else.


	21. 20

Drundec Labs was founded in the tremors of the Calamity war by the scientists responsible for the creation of the machines known as Gundams. It was a response to an enemy greater than any mankind has every created. As the aftershocks of the wars died the remaining Gundams were relegated to the vaults of noble families while the labs were scaled back and devoted to the creation of defensive measures. The worlds all but forgot the existence of the laboratories where the brightest engineers strove to greater heights and the most adept mechanics worked to realize those heights.

Until one group followed orders.

One group followed orders to make an army that could suppress any uprising. Following orders is the single most utilized excuse for previous actions used by the human race. It excused the slaughter of millions in the second millennium of the species, allowed police suppression of protests for basic rights to water, permitted the slavery of families during the terraforming years of Mars, and signs the death warrants on the enslaved children of space. A phrase that relinquishes responsibility from those who would carry out whatever mandate is presented to them without a second thought.

They were tasked with the creation of an army that could make a handful of noble families the absolute masters of the solar system. The men and women of the chosen Lab were the best of what Drundec had to offer, not a single person within those halls would have contested that. Each one of them itching for the chance to prove themselves to their noble beneficiaries and have their pet projects funded, have their names brought to greatness under the mantle of the families of Gjallarhorn. But none more so than the engineer and mechanic who only had three years of work under their belts.

They entered the Labs together, one a Martian hayseed, the other a promising transplant from the satellite colonies of Earth, and together they rose. Together they proved the superior quality their work over and over, until no one could doubt them. No one could use their low birth to keep them to the small scale projects. No one could stop their meteoric ascent.

The partners worked day and night, only stopping when the pangs of hunger and thirst demanded. Eventually something fell into place, then another something, and another something, until they found the answer to the task brought to them. Unfortunately, those who seek to rise above their fellows are oftentimes brought down by them.

The Engineer, against the wishes of the Mechanic, refused to involve their more experienced lab mates in the project. For that they suffered. They were labeled as renegades, rebels seeking to destroy the peace won through iron and blood so long ago. The noble houses that had so recently given funds and materials were suddenly distant and accusatory. How could _they,_ mere workers, think that they could ever accomplish such a task right under the nose of Gjallarhorn?

Before they could escape, they were sentenced to death.

However, the Engineer had a secret: a brother with connections to a certain organization with special reach across the solar system. A brother who loved her would do anything to keep her safe; even betray the man to whom he had sworn a blood oath.

And so the brother came, not with screaming fire and iron to wrest his sister and her partner from the chains of their superiors, but with bribes and secrets that motivated the correct politicians and bribes that greased the correct palms. He came with the code to an insurance virus that erased any trace of the notes and data garnered from restless nights and tireless days. The only intact files stayed safe in the possession of the Mechanic and the Engineer.

Thus Drundec lost two assets and gained two new competitors. The brilliant Engineer and the gifted Mechanic proved their worth to the old man holding the chains of their rescuer. They showed him the possibilities of where their minds could take his organization; the power he could wield. What man has ever been born who could resist the allure of power?

Under the protective wings of the old man and the legitimate guise of the brother's company the two were free to test boundaries, make new limits, and create. Until they weren't.

The governing bodies of Gjallarhorn do not care to see their prisoners escape their perceived justice. Like dogs they root out their prey until it is found and sufficiently disposed of. Even the protection of a powerful old man could not protect the Engineer and the Mechanic. As he could not protect her brother, who was caught in the accidental crossfire of a routine training exercise while following a well-known shipping route.

In order to protect what remained of her family, the Engineer made a deal with the Old Man. She would give him all of her information about the Gundams, their maintenance and construction, even how to mass-produce them, in exchange for the protection of her family. In the end she was killed before she could pass along the information. She was killed in her bed within a fortress while her family was shuttled to safety. Her body was never found.

From a city on the surface of Mars a broken Mechanic fulfilled his wife's end of the deal. But, he refused to tell anyone how mass-production was achieved. He had come to understand the dangers of the Gundams and believed they should never be as common as a Graze; so he destroyed everything that remained of the work that condemned his wife.

For six years he lived in peace with the most perfect creation he and his wife could ever make, until a sudden sickness swept through the city of Chryse. Slowly he deteriorated until he could barely hold a spoon to his lips and then he followed his wife.

His body was never found.

And neither was their daughter.

The Old Man lost three assets in quick succession and failed to keep his word.

Sometimes the truth is easier to handle when we think of it as a story; something we can imagine happening to someone else. We coddle ourselves and hide; we turn away and say it's not true. And then slowly we accept what we've learned and rage against the world. We scream curses at the injustice that befell the characters in our story. We spit and howl against those who have shaped our present and our past.

Until slowly, oh so slowly, we settle into a quiet calm. The calm of those who had lost but did not know why; of those who knew the cruelty of the world but not what it took; the calm of those who knew what they had to lose and what they would do to keep it.

I longer cry for the boy whose life was shortened by the bullet of an enslaved child. I have no tears for the betrayal of my parents or their loss. I don't plot revenge for their murder, though it has crossed my mind. Instead I bury myself in my friends, in my love, and in the work the Brewers left us.

I move forward, because it would break me to look back.

"Drundec huh? Damn, no wonder your old man was so good. Marube even tried to hire him a few times." Nadi said.

I didn't know that. But then, how could a person from Mars ever make it to such a position? Martians may be free in name, but we're still bound by the chains of the Earth. During his rise my father would have been used as a poster child for what hard work could bring to Mars. Of course, everyone knows there's only so high a Martian can climb even if they're the top of their class and take every opportunity.

That's why Gjallarhorn, the interplanetary peacekeeper, wanted Kudelia disposed of. As a leading voice in a movement for greater independence she embodies the hope of a planet. Nothing disturbs the peace quiet like the hope for freedom.

"And to thing this whole time you were an outlaw and didn't tell us. Some friend." Shino said over the Graze's comm system.

"Funny, I thought you were here to work today?" I said back over my headset.

He grumbled something back about mechanics and senses of humor.

The Graze had fared better than the enemy mechs due to the nature of Akihiro's mission during the final confrontation. By comparison the Gusion looked like a scrap heap. Yamagi was handling the repairs to the Graze but it was still in need of a new pilot. That was up to Orga though.

"How's the work load for the Gusion?" Nadi asked off handedly.

"Pretty bad. We'll need to pick up some extra materials before it'll be ready."

The work orders for our newest salvaged Gundam were already overflowing my E-pad's logs. My eyes wandered over to the hulking green Gundam that hung opposite the Barbatos. I'd ordered it moved up from the bay where we keep the cargo and battle spoils. What I didn't realize was the extent of its size.

The Gusion stood almost as tall as the Barbatos, with armor painted a deep green with hideous purple embellishments. Whatever armor it wore in the Calamity War had been lost, sold, or scrapped in favor of the thick plating the Brewers outfitted it with. Combined with the massive hammer favored by its previous pilot it was clear that the Gusion was meant to completely pulverize opponents while tanking large amounts of damage.

Not that it made a difference against Mika. With all of the armor weighing it down, the Gusion was easily out maneuvered by the faster Barbatos. Thankfully Mika missed the Ahab Reactors when he speared the cockpit where the front armor plate connected to the plate protecting the head of the machine.

I cursed when more orders populated the Gusion's maintenance log and pulled up the log for the Barbatos. Between the two of them the Barbatos had the shorter list. Resource wise it would be smarter to fix the Barbatos and then do what we can with the Gusion.

"What're you thinking?" Nadi grumbled.

"Just wishing Mika took more prisoners." I drummed my fingers on the railing of the observation landing.

"You should make more realistic wishes."

In a relatively empty corner of the bay Ride drilled the recruits in their new duties on the maintenance bay. While they were the property of the Brewers the kids were treated as expendable; why train a Human Debris in machine maintenance when they were unlikely to survive the next mission? So, naturally, we started them on Mobile Worker maintenance. They would need to learn how to fix the machines they'd likely pilot in the field. A few of them stood out to me; they were quicker to respond and worked as though they knew what they were doing. Those boys would be picked first for pilots.

"How long until we reach the Dort Colonies?" I asked.

"Biscuit said we'd be there in a few weeks at the most." Shino replied.

"Good, we'll need the time."

"I heard that there's been some unrest in the colonies lately. Something about workers calling for more rights." Nadi said.

"Have you been reading Merribit's news reports again?" I teased.

"Well we can't just blaze in there without knowing what's waiting for us, can we? Especially if we're known to be harboring a representative of the Martian Independence Movement " He replied quickly.

"And since when do you care about anything like that?"

"What are ya talking about, I've always cared about this stuff. Just never told anyone." He sniffed. Shino's laugh roared over the headset. I thought I had hearing damage for a second. Even while Nadi sputtered and Shino prodded I couldn't help but draw back. What were we walking into?


	22. 21

"The Graze interface has been rejecting A.V. system we pulled from the Brewer's Man Rodi units. Yamagi thinks he has a work around figured out and I'll stay on board a while longer to help out with that." I reported. Nadi nodded to me while he thumbed through the progress reports on the Barbatos and the Graze Kai. He didn't really need me to give the shortened version but I suspected he missed me. I'd spent the past few weeks on the Hammerhead working with the Turbines' head mechanic, Eco, on the Gusion rebuild. Akihiro accompanied me, spending whatever free time he had in the battle-sims with Lafter or Azee.

There was so much I could be getting done today: Eco and I were going over new designs for the outer armor and I wanted to share an idea about increasing the combat capability of the suit. Of course, I couldn't ignore an order and Nadi knew it.

"We started the process of dismantling the suit's armor. There's enough extra material that I think we can patch up some holes in the Barbatos' armor as well. Eco's gonna show me how to use the Shaper to remold armor pieces rather than just patching them up. It'll help preserve the integrity of the material without leaving wea–"

"And when was the last time you ate or slept more than a few hours?" He interrupted.

"What?" Maybe two days ago? I wasn't entirely sure.

Nadi sighed and closed the reports. There was worry in his eyes when he looked at me. "Aurora, you're a good mechanic but you're terrible at hiding things. You push yourself too hard when something's bothering you."

"I'm not working any harder than the rest of the guys."

"We both know that isn't true." I didn't want to reply to that. How long until our next run in with Gjallarhorn or a crew working for them? How many people would we lose? We were barely scraping by each time and the mechs showed it.

"Who knows how long it'll be before we get drawn into another fight. If the mechs aren't ready we won't stand a chance. The Barbatos needs–"

He held up a hand and I fell silent, " _You_ need to take a break."

I opened my mouth, ready with a list of reasons why we that was the last thing we could afford; but he continued: "Which is why you're overseeing the cargo drop at the Dort Colonies."

"But Yamagi's is more than ca–"

"That's an order" He grinned

Of course it was.

"Are those the colonies?" Atra asked excitedly. She practically hopped into the bridge with Kudelia and Fumitan following at a more sedate pace. Fumitan looked particularly gloomy, which was saying something because she usually looked like someone who'd found a roach in their morning oatmeal. I leaned forward over the back of the captain's chair and crossed my arms in front of me. At least someone was excited.

"Yup" Orga affirmed. He didn't look like he believed we'd make it this far. Or maybe it was awe at seeing a collection of large life-supporting ships? I preferred the latter explanation.

"They all kinda look the same." Shino was also in awe at the feats of engineering on display. My thoughts took a dark turn at the word engineer. Mikazuki raised an eyebrow at my but I shook my head. There was nothing productive that would come out of that thought spiral.

All of the colonies had the same general structure: a cylinder with two disks at either end. They would have a series of thrusters along the body of the crafts to help adjust their locations and orbit speeds. They were far enough away from the Earth that gravity wouldn't have too great an affect on their orbits so I didn't expect the thrusters were used very often.

"They're all part of a public enterprise called Dort, it's a part of the African Union Bloc." Orga explained

"And we're headed for Dort Two, correct?" Eugene asked. He was seated at one of the monitors at the front of the Bridge. He would be one of the crew helping in the cargo drop-off, but the question struck me as a test to see if Orga was paying attention to him.

"Which one is that?" Shino asked before anyone could answer Eugene. He shot Shino a look that would have gotten a grin out of me any other day.

"That's Dort Three." Biscuit answered, pointing out the colony, "The one directly across from it is Dort Two."

I glanced over at Biscuit. He had a slight grin and a generally happy aura about him, had he been here before?

"Number Three is where all of the factory owners and other administrators from Earth have their luxurious houses; the commercial facilities are located there as well." He continued.

"Geez Biscuit, you really know your stuff!" Shino exclaimed with excitement. How did Biscuit know all of this? The CGS database had the bare minimum of information on the colonies; not much point in knowing about entities you'd never do business with. Of course no one thought it was important enough to waste memory space or time imputing the information.

There were a number of excited noises as a partially lit blue sphere came into view of the cameras. Some compared it to a jewel and others, namely Shino, to a tasty foreign fruit. To me it looked unimpressive; sure it was beautiful and was the ancestral home of our species but it was also the home base of Gjallarhorn and their laboratories.

Orga straightened and turned to say something to Kudelia, he paused for a moment when his eyes turned my way. I shook my head, I didn't want to talk about it in front of everyone. We had more important things to take care of.

He turned away, "Sorry to have to make a detour when we're so close to Earth. We'll be back on schedule after we deliver Teiwaz's cargo."

Kudelia took the apology in stride, "It's not a problem. I understand it's an important job."

She paused for a second before continuing, "Could I ask a favor?"

"Go ahead." Orga nodded.

"While you all are unloading cargo, could Fumitan and I go to Dort Three?"

Fumitan's head turned at the statement, an odd reaction. Maybe she was concerned someone would try to hurt Kudelia?

"Can I ask why?" Orga caught my eye, he'd seen Fumitan's reaction as well.

"Oh, Of course!" Kudelia seemed a bit flustered, which was cute, "I, uh, wanted to run some errands and do a little shopping since there are commercial facilities on number three."

"Ma'am, I don't think that's–"

"It'll be fine, right Fumitan?" Kudelia interrupted her maid, she didn't seem to register how uncomfortable Fumitan was with the change in schedule. "There are things I need to pick up and there might not be time when we get to Earth."

"Well, I understand. I will accompany you." Fumitan replied.

I saw Mika's eyes narrow slightly. Even he was thinking the maid's behavior seemed off.

"Shopping? I'm so jealous" Atra mewled.

"Then come along with us, the more the merrier." Kudelia smiled. I widened my eyes a fraction in Orga's direction.

"It shouldn't be all girls going, Mika can you go too?" Orga suggested.

"Yeah, sure." Good. Mika would keep an eye on things.

"Wha-? H-he doesn't have to come, I don't want to be a burden."

"You're an important client and anything could happen. Mika isn't scheduled for anything, right?" Orga looked at Mika.

"Nope."

"Not that Fumitan would let anything happen." He looked at the maid, who for her part didn't react as much as I thought. Maybe I was just being paranoid.

"Orga, could I go with them?" Biscuit asked sheepishly.

"Yeah sure, you have the day off anyways."

Atra began talking excitedly about the shopping trip. We hadn't had much down time since stopping at the Saisei so I could understand her enthusiasm. I was glad she could get so excited over something like that.

The group filed out to get to the shuttle. Kudelia and Atra's voices still carried for a while before the door closed and snuffed them out.

"How'd your meeting with Naze and Amida go?" I asked as Orga approached the captain's chair. Merribit ducked into the bridge and waved a greeting. I nodded back. She sat down and started the procedure for the transport shuttle launch.

"We got lectured as always." Eugene answered.

"It was not a lecture." Orga huffed. Someone was annoyed.

I grinned at Eugene, "You got a lecture?"

"It was not a lecture!" He looked pointedly at Eugene, "Naze expressed his apologies for not being able to come with us. He and Amida have to finalize things concerning the Brewers' assets. They'll be continuing on to Dort Six."

"Any word on the cargo drop?"

"They told us not to mess with Gjallarhorn." Shino drawled.

I frowned at that, "Usually they're the ones picking fights with _us_."

"We have to hope we don't run into them. Apparently the Earth Branch is more well trained than the ones in the Outer Planets." Orga sighed. That seemed like something he was _lectured_ on.

"Something about Mars and Jupiter being more lawless and the Earth being more tightly monitored." Shino offered. Okay, that made sense. We were closer to the headquarters so there would be more bodies available to carry out patrols and missions. Not to mention funding for better weapons.

"Even Teiwaz plays by the rules while in Earth Orbit. It's just another normal company here." Eugene said as he spun around in his chair.

"Looks like the launch is safely on its way." Merribit stated

"Thanks for helping out with that." Orga said

"It's alright." Merribit smiled back. For his part, Orga downright embarrassed.

"So if we get in trouble, they would be so able to help us. We run the risk of getting crushed." I tried to keep a straight face at Orga acting so silly. For a moment I could almost forget everything that had happened since we started this damned job.

"There was a lot of emphasis on staying out of trouble." Eugene stopped spinning; he wagged his eyebrows at Orga and grinned at me

"When have we ever gotten into trouble?" I grinned back. Orga opened his mouth to say something but was interrupted by a hail signal. We all looked at each other in confusion. Who would be hailing us?

"Um… well, it's a ship." Merribit sounded really uncertain about it, I found that I didn't like that at all. "It's approaching us."

"Tekkadan, right? Welcome to Dort Two!" A cheery masculine voice sounded over the comms system. I narrowed my eyes at the identification; how would they know who we are? We were known in the outer planetary orbits but surely word couldn't have spread that fast that we were coming to deliver a payload.

"Please follow our guide ship!" The voice sounded again. A small transport vessel pinged its location to Merribit's screen.

"You know who we are?" Orga asked.

"Of course!" the voice laughed, "We've been waiting on you guys to get here. Everyone is excited to see the young heroes in person!"

"Heroes?" Eugene looked at Shino and I. Shino shook his head and I shrugged. I had no idea what this person was going on about. How could we be heroes?

"Alright then. Please show us the way."

"So, you guys are Tekkadan, eh?" The voice from the comms belonged to a slightly overweight man with a receding hairline and glasses. Two men, one with a severe face and hard eyes and the other with darker skin and a more welcoming smile, flanked him on either side and a woman with straight bangs brought up the rear; they all wore the same pale green uniform jacked with the Dort Company's logo on the back. Each of them had bags under their eyes and haggard faces that suggested long hours and little sleep. Not so different from how we looked during the CGS days.

"Um, yes." Orga sounded unsure of how to respond. Shino and Eugene were a step behind him, Yamagi and I directly behind. Merribit stood off to the side, not really a part of the group but also not entirely separate.

"I heard you all were young, but I didn't realize just how young!" Receding Hairline exclaimed.

"You're all just a bunch of kids" Crags shared his incredulity.

I started at that but Eugene beat me to the punch, "Don't go underestimating us because we're kids."

I winced and wished I'd said something first. That was the exact sort of thing that makes people underestimate you.

"Don't get us wrong," Receding Hairline was quick to try to make amends for the unintended slight, "We've all been looking forward to meeting you guys."

I tried to keep my face as straight as possible while my inner alarm bells rang. Something wasn't right here.

The friendly faced one looked at Merribit and I saw his face light up, "Hey, are you miss Kudelia Aina Bernstein?"

Poor Merribit seemed caught off guard and stumbled to make a response. Orga saved her, "Kudelia has gone to a different colony on other business. She won't be joining us."

"Is that so…" Craggs seemed disappointed.

"I thought you looked a little old for a teenager." Friendly face drawled. Merribit straightened slightly at that. So she had a problem with how old she was? Why would anyone not want to be older? Usually, as long as you were still physically fit, it earned you more respect.

"You know about Kudelia too?" Shino asked.

"Of course." Receding Hairline said apologetically. He seemed confused about our confusion, "Kudelia is the figurehead of the Martian Independence Movement. For the workers of the Dort Colonies, she's the star or hope."

"And Tekkadan is the band of knights protecting her on her expedition to Earth." Craggs offered.

"What's a band of knights?" Shino muttered to me.

"In the books they're warriors who usually protect others." I said.

"Does anyone else think this is strange?" Yamagi asked.

Yes. This was extremely strange. The other workers had all stopped their jobs and were watching out exchange. I was acutely aware of the number strange pairs of eyes and how exposed the warehouse area left us; there were too many good spots in which a gunner could hide.

"Anyways, thanks for coming. On behalf of all the Dort workers we welcome you." Hairline offered his hand.

Orga took it, "Thank you for your hospitality."

"May we start unloading the cargo?" Merribit asked politely. Thank goodness she was helping move things along before the Dort people could say any thing else.

"Oh yes of course." Hairline said.

"Teams one, two and three begin unloading." I said into the comms around my neck. The teams moved between the Isaribi and the Dort dock area like they had been doing it all their lives. I could tell the Dort workers were impressed by their speed and professionalism.

"So what's it like living in one of these fancy colonies?" Shino asked. I walked off to monitor the unloading but I stayed within earshot. It was interesting to see women working along side the men. President Maruba had been a bit more sexist in his hiring guidelines. Something about women being weaker and meant for a few, more domestic tasks.

The workers laughed, "Only the people who come from Earth get to experience anything fancy. The people who were born and raised in the colonies are treated like disposable tools." I clenched by fist. Some things didn't change no matter where in the worlds you went.

"We're made to work for next to no pay, no benefits. Not even insurance for when we get hurt on the job. If you're physically disabled, that's it. You're out with no way to provide for yourself or your family. People on Earth just get to laze about and suck up all of the profits we generate."

"We've been enduring this for decades; and we're sick of it." I paused at the anger in Hairline's voice. I glanced over at where he stood with Craggs and Friendly, talking to Orga, Shino and Eugene. Orga met my eyes and slightly tilted his head; we were on the same page about this.

"So no matter what planet your on or orbiting, the bossy ones are still jerks," Eugene glanced over at me and added, "Except for Ari of course."

"Jerk!" I called over and stuck my tongue out at him. He and Shino snickered and I turned away in mock anger.

Hairline continued, unfazed by our antics, "But then a ray of hope shone out to us. We heard about Miss Bernstein. Imagine: a young girl leading the entire Martian Independence movement, even influencing one of the magnates of an Earth Economic Bloc. Could there be anything else more exciting?"

"We realized that if we rise up, we can change this world to something better. Something our children can be proud of."

One of the other workers picked up from him, "And the ones escorting her to Earth are said to be a bunch of kids mostly in their teens. The Revolutionary Maiden and Tekkadan, the knights sworn to protect her; you're a symbol of hope for all of us."

Well that explains the welcome. I didn't like the anger and fervor in the way he spoke, but I couldn't blame him for it. The worlds were shit when you had neither money nor influence. We'd only been just barely staying above water, if not for the alliance with Teiwaz we would have run out of funds months ago. How heroic was that? How the heck could they know enough about us, a newly formed Outer Planet company, to call us heroic and praise us as symbols of hope?

"How'd you hear about us?" Orga asked. I could hear it in his voice: he was suspicious and going into his field commander mindset.

"From our supporter of course!"

"And that would be…?"

I was distracted by the teams finishing up their last drop-offs and didn't hear the next part. "All of you get back to the ship. Tell Chad to keep the engines prepped. I have a bad feeling about this."

Ride nodded and led the rest of the crew back to the ship. Merribit approached the small group that had gathered and asked for Hairline to sign off on the cargo drop.

I noticed a few of the Dort people trying to pry off the lid of one of the smaller containers. It took a few tries after the bolts were removed, but eventually they worked it off. My heart stopped when I was what was inside.

"Orga!" I shouted and ran towards my crew, they were distracted by something in one of the larger containers. I didn't make it two steps before I realized what it was they were staring at: a Mobile worker. One of the newest editions with improved armor and weapons that made it ten times as deadly and efficient as our best worker unit.

"It's finally going to start." On of the Dort workers said

Shit.


	23. 22

"Our years of suffering and endurance will finally be over."

All around me, the Workers of Dort were pulling machine guns and ammo out of the unloaded containers. A large group was marveling at a mobile worker, fresh off of the assembly line and more lethal than any unit we had in the Isaribi.

Orga, Shino, Eugene and Yamagi turned to Merribit for answers. As the Teiwaz liaison she would have a better idea about what the hell was going on. Unfortunately, even she was confused. Or she put on the appearance of being confused.

Could she be lying? No, it didn't work with what I knew of her.

She said something about the logs reporting industrial supplies and rushed out to the Isaribi to check the item request forms. That made for one more crewmate back to the relative safety of the ship.

One group of Workers shouted their amazement at a box of guns and started swinging them around. One even pointed the damn thing in the general direction of another group.

"Hey, that's not a toy!" Shino admonished them. Not that they heard. The adults in the room were too excited about their new toys to realize they weren't _toys_.

"Orga, we can't be seen here." I rushed back to the remaining Tekkadan members. There were bound to be security cameras in the area and around the bay where the ship was docked. We needed to focus on limiting the amount of footage they got of us here.

Orga clenched his jaw, his eyes narrowed and he stalked toward Hairline's small posse. The only time I remember seeing him that way was when he was trying not to punch one of the First Group guys. It scared me.

"What are you guys trying to do here?" Orga demanded.

"What? You haven't heard?" Craggs was the first to speak up.

"You delivered this stuff because our supporter asked you to, right?" Hairline sounded almost incredulous.

Supporter? McMurdo? But surely Naze would know. Was he also involved in whatever this was? He couldn't be, he was the person trying to keep us _out_ of trouble. Amida? That made no sense either. Why would she meet with me so often if she wanted to pull one over on us? It would be a wasted effort.

"Just who is this supporter of yours?" Orga asked. His voice was strained, probably to keep from shouting at the men.

"I don't know the name, they just said they were Miss Bernstein's proxy." Hairline explained. He _had_ to be kidding. There was no way someone could be so stupid.

"And you just believed them? They could be Gjallarhorn for all you know and you may have just walked us all into a setup." I shouted at him, "Orga, we need to leave right now."

"Ari." He said sharply and I knew I'd overstepped. You never yelled at the field commander in a crisis situation, no matter what. I grit my teeth and backed down.

"Th-they said Miss Bernstein is calling for a rebellion against Earth's rule, in places other than Mars." As he droned on I tracked people opening more and more cargo containers, exposing weapons, guns, and more mechs.

"They said the necessary guns and ammo would be provided by Kudelia via Tekkadan."

"We didn't know anything about this."

The shouts and cheers turned into screams of disbelief and fear. Some one was asking what was going on. Another was screaming for the invaders to leave. Dort personnel all around the hangar were reacting the appearance of armored vehicles at one of the entrances to the rest of the colony.

"Oh no." I whispered. I could feel adrenaline shift me towards flight before Orga put a heavy hand on my shoulder and jarred me out of it. A reminder to keep my head clear and not become one of the panicking civilians. It was so easy to fall out of that headspace.

The black vehicles swerved throughout the compound until there was one at every entry point cutting off our escape. How could they have known we would be here with the incriminating evidence if they weren't part of this?

The doors of the vehicles opened and spewed out Gjallarhorn soldiers in full riot gear. The officers arranged themselves with the vehicles at their backs, a textbook defensive position to make themselves seem like the party caught off guard. They pointed automatic rifles at us and I was fairly certain they weren't packing rubber bullets.

"Nobody move," A disembodied voice ordered, "drop your weapons and raise your hands above your heads."

Weapons clattered onto the ground and bounced up a little in the low gravity as the Dort Workers complied. I hoped the safeties were on.

"Combat ready mobile worker, arms, and ammo. Just like the reports said." The voice continued. So someone had tipped them off.

"Report?" Hairline asked. Somewhere in the back of my mind I thought of learning his name. It was annoying to think of him as "Hairline".

"A report stating an illegal transaction would be taking place." The officer explained.

"Wait, we were just–"

"Save your excuses." The two began to argue. I legitimately wondered how Hairline was going to try to explain the situation, but I had other concerns.

"Hey, Orga. What should we do?" Shino whispered. The officers didn't seem to recognize us, for the moment.

Before he could reply, two Dort Workers picked up their weapons. One started running, creating a distraction. The other fired the first shots, giving Gjallarhorn perfect cause for escalation and an excuse for using equivalent force.

 _Shit_

The hangar erupted into chaos as the Workers picked up weapons or ran for cover. The Gjallarhorn officers opened fire on the Workers but seemed to miss more often than they hit.

"Oh my god. Do you see that?" I said to no one in particular, "They're letting themselves get shot. They want to make the Dort Workers out to be the aggressors."

"Shit. Let's go." Orga swore. The hand he had on my shoulder pushed me forward, toward what little cover remained. Shino ushered Yamagi forward in much the same way. The boy's blue eyes were wide with shock, but at least he didn't freeze.

A vehicle that moved to provide cover for a group of officers also blocked us from one side of fire. Bullets gouged the floor and the walls all around us, both sides firing blind from behind cover. We took cover behind a wall, cutting off the officers behind us but leaving us open to fire from the side.

A flash of metal caught my eye; the aim was toward our group. Yamagi was furthest from the wall, making him the biggest target.

"Yamagi!" I shouted. There was no time to think; I half pulled and half pushed him down and out of the way. A sharp push and a burning sensation made the nerves in my upper arm scream in pain. Well shit.

A bullet smacked into the wall beside Orga's head at the same time. Eugene very nearly opened fire on the gunman but a stray bullet either put the gunman down or made him change positions so he was no longer a threat.

"Don't shoot, remember what Naze said." Orga growled.

"But at this rate…" Shino's words drifted off. I clamped my hand over the bullet wound and hoped it was through and through so I wouldn't have to dig a bullet out. A spray of bullet bit into the wall across from us, very nearly striking a phone.

A phone. Communication. A method of contacting the Isaribi to tell them to get the hell out of here.

Orga looked at us. I could see the thought pass through his mind.

"Orga no–" Eugene shouted, but Orga was already on the other side of the alley, in direct line of fire, calling the isaribi.

Eugene swore and shouted at the Dort Workers to cover Orga.

"Get the ship out now. We're caught in the middle of a skirmish with Gjallarhorn. The Isaribi can't be here." Orga shouted to be heard over the staccato of gunfire. I shucked off my jacket and tore a strip of cloth from my shirt to bind the wound and prevent any more blood loss. At least it wasn't my right arm; even if there was permanent muscle damage, I'd still be able to work.

I heard Orga say something about a GN trading before he hung up the phone. A bullet clipped the telephone, rendering it useless. He dropped the receiver and dove for the cover of the wall.

"Ari." His voice trailed off. I shoved my arm back into my jacket to hide it.

"I'm fine. Did they make it out?"

"You're turning green," He paused and pressed his lips together,"yeah they got out." He obviously didn't want to drop it.

"They're pulling back." Eugene commented. He was peering around the corner with his handgun at the ready. The Dort Workers started cheering as if they'd won a great victory.

"This is no time to be cheering." Orga yelled over the shouts, the remaining Tekkadan crew moved to confront the Workers, "They're going to come back and they're going to hit even harder when they do."

"You're right. But we can't turn back now." Hairline growled and clenched his fist, "We have to fight and win."

Dort personnel all around the hangar took up the cry. Yelling about how they would fight for their future and their rights. Yelling that they could win against the economic bloc.

 _Idiots_ all of them.

I dug the forceps into the bullet wound, the pain made me clench my teeth so hard I thought they'd break. It took some maneuvering but I managed to get a grip on the hard metal ball lodged in the meat of my left arm. I let out a grunt when the metal shifted and slipped. It was lodged in the muscle and fat of my arm, I was fairly positive it missed the bone on its way in. There was no pain to suggest a fracture or shatter, at least.

"Are you sure you don't want someone else to do it." A woman, I think she said her name was Janey, was hovering over me like a mother hen. She was thin, like most of the Workers, and had straight blonde hair pulled back into a short ponytail. I shook my head at her and tilted my chin at the metal tin by my boot. She picked it up and held it out to me.

I shifted the bullet and finally removed it, praying there wouldn't be a sudden rush of blood that indcated a nicked artery. I didn't have the tools to deal with that sort of complication. I didn't even have a needle and thread to sew the hole shut.

"God. You Tekkadan kids are tough as nails." A man said. I barely spared him a glance he'd been part of a little group watching the theatrics of a girl digging a bullet out of her arm. He was another one of the many idiots swinging his gun around like he knew how to use it.

"Did you see that? She didn't even bat an eye about going in there with the scissor things."

"Hush Ely." Janey shushed him for me, she was one of the few who understood how bad the situation was. I gave her a nod in appreciation as I pressed an alcohol drenched gauze pad to the wound. The sting helped clarify everything around me. The low gravity allowed Orga and the guys to hustle together on the ceiling, no doubt discussing what our next steps would be. I was on the ground where the criminally under-stocked first aid kit was. I peeled the bloody gauze away and applied a fresh, dry piece.

"Setting bones is the really hard stuff. You have to be careful not to pinch anything and to get both ends back in the right positions. I threw up the first time I had to do it."

"How old were you?" Janey asked quietly while Ely and his friends swore about how awesome that sounded. Not quite the reaction I was going for.

I thought about it for a minute, "I don't know."

She looked down at the ground, a grim twist to her mouth. Yeah, life sucked sometimes.

I twisted the bandage so it would hold in place and thanked her for her help. Orga looked at me and tilted his head in question, I gave him a bloody thumbs-up.

Janey helped me get all of the gory instruments into a biohazard bag before I kicked off to join the guys. I tried to ignore the eyes that followed me, the comments that were made.

Shino caught me by my good arm and helped me orient myself so I didn't smack my head on the ceiling. Below, the Workers began to leave aboard transport vehicles and in the larger cargo containers that housed the mechs. I had a sinking feeling in my stomach. Hopefully Biscuit, Mika, and the girls were doing better.

"So what's the plan?" I tried to keep the quiver out of my voice. The recent activity made my arm throb.

"We should get back to the Isaribi before we get any more involved in this." Eugene suggested.

"We have to contact Mikazuki first and get everyone off of Dort Three." Shino said.

"But it's not time for the scheduled contact." Yamagi spoke up; he'd been staring at my bandaged arm. I shot him a wink.

"What happened? Is everyone safe?" A man with a briefcase floated into the hangar shouting. Apparently he was well known because the Workers flocked around him.

"Mr. Navona, I'm sorry. We got into a gunfight to keep the weapons from being confiscated." Hairline said.

"Well, now there's no turning back. The inevitable has come to pass. Let's just think of it that way." The so-called Mr. Navona replied. He was a grey haired man with the same color green jacket as the rest of the Workers; he sported a tie and dress shit beneath it. From what I gathered, he was an office worker. The man made his way through the crowd and over to us. Orga was the first to touch ground, the rest of us followed suit.

"So you're Tekkadan." He declared when he reached us. He had a good-natured smile and a rather bulbous nose, something in his eyes reminded me of Biscuit. He extended his hand in greeting, "I'm Navona Mingo, the leader of the union."

"Orga Itsuka, the boss of Tekkadan."

"I've heard the details of what happened. I can offer you a place where you can hide until your pickup comes."

Orga looked back at us, at me. Navona represented our only allies on the entire colony. We had nowhere else to turn. What did we have to lose? Shino nodded, I joined him.

Orga's shoulders sagged just a bit, "We have no one to count on. We don't really have a choice but to follow you."

"Alright then." Navona wasted no time in kicking away from where we were gathered. Orga followed immediately behind.

The Slums of Dort Two were tired and beaten down. The streets were littered with trash and broken machinery, old lifts that probably hadn't worked in my lifetime provided housing to those unfit for work in the factories. Some were missing limbs, hands, or feet; others had less visible illnesses rendering them unable to work. Cancers from unregulated exposure to hazardous chemicals, respiratory illnesses, some seemed paralyzed from the waist down.

The slums were a gray mark on the walls of the cylindrical colony. Above us transports filed into and out of the docks and factories like clockwork. I knew some of the transports would be filled with weapons.

The sides of buildings were covered in graffiti, the same general theme but different wording: ending the oppression. Those who were still coherent enough to want a better life moved around us with a hard glint in their eyes. Hate, brought on by the feeling of impotence and systematic suppression, fueled these people. Children, oblivious to their surroundings, laughed and played among the ruined buildings and transports. It wasn't so very different from the slums of Chryse, back on Mars.

Buildings, ugly, square and utilitarian, stretched out before and behind us. Mr. Navona turned and led us into one. There was nothing to differentiate them; it was a wonder no one got lost.

We climbed the stairs in silence, in some spots the railing was missing where an old fight broke it. We stopped near the top floor and exited into a hallway. Apartment doors were open and children ran up and down the hall, chasing each other in some sort of tag. The smells of weak soups and bread permeated the air. A few people broke off from our number to check in with family members. Some came back.

"Where exactly are you taking us?" I asked. Some of the kids left the game and hid behind doorways, sneaking glances at us as we passed.

"Hm? Oh! Sorry, this is my home." Mr. Navona brought us to the last apartment on the left and opened the door. There wasn't even a latch to lock it.

"It's a bit small, but all of the basics are here." There was a hint of embarrassment to his voice as we filed into a small kitchen area. Off to one side were what I assumed to be a bathroom and sleeping area. The basics.

"It's charming." I replied. It really was; a little run down, of course, but there were touches that made it homey: a teakettle left on the stove, mismatched dishes, a child's painting of a green field.

"Thank you for helping us out." Orga said. He collapsed into one of the wooden chairs that surrounded the kitchen table.

"I'll get some tea started." Mr. Navona busied himself with the kettle. Hairline and a man with a hat so old it was nearly formless passed through the threshold. They gave a brief report on the status of weapon transport.

"I thought the colonies were supposed to be really nice-looking." Yamagi said quietly, looking around at the shabby cabinets and doors.

" _Yamagi_." Orga shushed him.

"It looks a lot like Chryse." Shino didn't even try to be quiet.

"Chryse is better though, at least it has a sky." Eugene walked over to the windows behind the kitchen table. I cringed at the two of them.

" _You guys…_ " Orga hissed. They were so oblivious sometimes.

"Don't worry. It's an apartment in the slums. It could be much worse. At least I have running water." Mr. Navona said over a platter of mismatched teacups. I accepted one with a smile and tried not to wince when the bullet hole stretched.

"Dort Three is where the fancier housing is. It's not a place where people from the slums can go though." He turned around to shoo some children away from where they had been peeping through the door. No doubt they'd hear of the heroic Tekkadan and wanted to see for themselves.

"The only person who's made it out of here in the past few years was Savarin." Hairline spoke up.

"Because he was talented and had the luck of being adopted by a rich family." The man with the had replied.

"An acquaintance of yours?" Orga asked politely. Eugene found the communication terminal and plugged our phone into it. The contact time would be coming up soon. I was glad he'd thought of it.

"He's a youth from the slums," Mr. Navona explained, no doubt before one of the two men could say something bad about this Savarin person, "Now he's a company executive and acts as our mediator in negotiations."

"Lot of good that's done us. We haven't heard anything remotely close to good news." The hat man shook his head, "He's changed since gaining status, like he's too good for us. He's on the other side now."

"He must have his reasons…" Mr. Navona trailed off. He didn't want to outright disagree with the other two, but seemed to have a reason for holding out hope. Hairline didn't seem very bright to start with and I wasn't sure about the hat guy, Navona seemed to have his heart in the right place though.

Someone came to the door; I tensed, thinking they were a threat, then relaxed when Navona greeted them.

"Excuse me for a moment, I'm going to see about a transport for you all." He stepped out into the hall.

The kids were back; they managed to slip whoever was watching them. They stood there with eyes the size of plates, neither willing to speak up nor leave. Shino walked over and said something that made them all laugh. Eventually he was running down the hall with children hanging off of him. Yamagi watched from the doorway. The laughter did everyone a little good.

"Thoughts?" Orga looked at me. I could see the questions he didn't ask: how I was doing, if it hurt, did I need anything.

"Navona's group is one of the more peaceful ones. I bet there are other cells throughout the city that are itching to pull triggers. He seems to be placing a lot of hope on negotiations and this Savarin person." I turned the teacup around in my hands, acutely aware of the men staring at me.

"This place is a pressure cooker. Something was bound to happen and we just happened to walk in at the right time." Eugene muttered from the window.

Navona returned, with a small handgun clutched in one hand. He sat down heavily and set the gun on the table. Orga glanced at the gun.

"We'll move to Dort Three in about an hour. We have a launch prepared for you as well." Navona rested his elbows on his knees, a hunched position that didn't display the confidence of the leader of an uprising.

"Thank you, that helps a lot." Orga looked at the old man for a moment, "I know I'm in no position to say this, but are you sure weapons are the only way?"

Navona bowed his head further, "We have to use whatever means are available to us to make management listen, to get them to the negotiation table. There are extremist cells that are calling out for more action. They're preparing something big."

"And you want to end the situation before they get a chance to make things worse." I offered.

Navona looked at me, "That's right. We've held them back so far by telling them to wait for the negotiation results, but they could riot at any moment. It's the same all across the colonies."

He turned back to Orga, looked up at him, "If it's possible, would Tekkadan be able to help us out? It's painfully obvious we have no experience when it comes to fighting…"

Orga considered for a moment. I knew he wanted to help these guys, that was just who he was, but we had to think of our allegiance to the Turbines and Teiwaz, "I'm sorry. It would cause trouble for someone we owe a lot to"

Navona, for his part, accepted this very smoothly, "Please forgive me for asking, I had to at least try."

"Mr. Navona!" I heard the man before I saw him. He burst into the small apartment with an E-pad in hand. A photo was pulled up on the display.

"It's from one of ours on Dort Three." We all leaned over the pad, even Shino managed to escape the kids to see.

"The boy, he's one of Tekkadan, right?" It was a photo of a dark alley, six figures before a car. Two of the figures were struggling in the arms of men in suits. One was Biscuit, the other Atra.

"Our other guy thinks that's Kudelia." He pointed at Atra.

"No, that's our cook. What happened in Dort Three?" Orga was interrupted by a sound from the comm terminal. He grabbed it and jabbed at the screen to answer the call.

"Mika! Are you safe?" Everyone in the room waited in silence. Why were they split up?

"Are you with Kudelia?"

"Biscuit and Atra have been captured." Orga said gravely. So Mika wasn't aware. They'd probably split up to do shopping, keeping Mika with Kudelia while Atra went off with Biscuit. Orga hung up after wishing Mika luck.

"We're gonna need to move up that departure time." Eugene said to Mr. Navona.

For the most part the spaceport was calm. Apparently news hadn't spread about the skirmish at the docks, or it had and people were staying quiet about it. Navona left us with an empty Dort Corporation cargo transport, preprogrammed with permissions to dock at Dort Three. Shino and Eugene piloted it through the transit channels crossing the space between Dort Three and Two. There was a steady level of traffic, mostly civilian or freight shuttles like ours. I wondered how many of them were filled with armed Workers.

I leaned against a rail and watched the ships enter an exit the colony and thought that maybe it was what a real beehive looked like. Somehow I doubted bees had worker strikes.

A high-pitched beacon rang out through the tiny cabin. A window with the words "access denied" blinked on the computer screens in front of Shino and Eugene. _This day just keeps getting better_.

"We keep getting bumped to the end of the entry list." Shino groaned. Apparently the colonies stepped up their security in response to the brief shootout. Not that I could blame them, but it did make the rescue mission that much harder. We passed through the industrial channels without a problem but trying to get to the commercial and general use port was looking like less of an option as more shuttles arrived from Dort 2.

"Shino, can you get us in close to the colony?" Orga asked. I glanced at him and almost groaned. He'd found spacesuits.

"You got it." Shino said excitedly. We exited the crowded channels, aiming for one of the maintenance exits. In theory we could sneak in through there and set the shuttle on autopilot to return to the Dort 2 docks. In practice, the plan would probably not go so smoothly.

We pulled on the suits while Shino piloted. The transport we were given was equipped with a door for space walks, no need to work around the security system that prevented passengers from making unauthorized exits.

"Just relax, I've got you and we've all done this a million times." Orga laid his hand on the small of my back. The suit was so thick I could only feel slight pressure. My stomach turned itself in knots at the thought of being separated from my group. From my family.

"Do I look that nervous?" I raised an eyebrow.

"You? Nervous? I'd never say that." He grinned and turned to the pilot seats. Eugene and Yamagi were already in back, waiting for the go ahead to de-ship.

"Ready Shino?"

"Born ready." He typed in the last command. We would have five minutes to leave the transport before it worked its way back to its homeport.

Shino brushed past me, he reached out a hand to mess up my hair but I ducked out of the way just in time. I punched him lightly on the shoulder.

Part of the knot that had been twisting up inside of me released at the friendly display. These were my friends; the only ones I'd ever had. As long as I was with them, as long as I kept them safe, everything would be fine. It had to be.

After checking that everyone's suits were fully sealed, Eugene threw the switch to open the external hatch. A pneumatic hiss filled the air, the sound of the air being sucked away so the pressure change wouldn't be quite so violent. The beeps and faint buzzing of the ships electronics faded away until I only heard my own breathing and rapid heartbeat.

"Let's go." Orga's voice crackled through the ancient comm system in the suit. I reminded myself that everything would be fine because the guys knew what they were doing. _Orga_ knew what he was doing.

One by one we pushed out of the shuttle towards the bulk of the colony. Shino had set us close by one of the maintenance hatches, it was open which meant someone was working close by and there was a chance of being caught. For the moment there was no one to be seen.

Orga wrapped an arm around me and together we kicked away from the transport. Small bursts of propellant hissed from the hands of the suits to help us orient and correct our paths.

"They're gonna be fine." Orga's voice crackled. I thought he was only speaking to me, but nods from Eugene, Shino and Yamagi, made me realize it was an open comm system. It was efficient for Workers while making it impossible to have private chatter. I nodded, in part to show that I'd heard him and to show that I appreciated the sentiment. Orga squeezed me a little in response.

Eugene made first contact with the colony, bouncing slightly before catching hold of a handle set around the hatch door. He reached out a hand to swing the rest of us in before jumping through. We'd been untethered for maybe five minutes, but it felt like hours had passed.

I waited with Yamagi while the guys secured the area. Yamagi, to his credit, appeared to be taking the past events in stride. Somewhere I'd heard that younger kids adapted more easily than adults. Maybe that was true; I wondered why I didn't adapt. Could the nine years I'd spent with my dad, in a mostly normal home, have grounded me? A wave of grief and anger rushed over me at the thought of my dad and what I'd lost; at what had been taken from me. I used that rush to push past the alarm and fear that plagued me.

When Shino waved for us to join I pulled Yamagi forward, my injured arm pressed to my stomach to keep it from moving too much. We ditched the spacesuits as soon as it was safe and hid them in a storage closet.

The few Workers on duty either didn't notice us, or didn't care. They were too caught up in a crowd that was gathering at one of the doors. I paused to catch a glimpse of what was going on.

"We've been patient enough with these peace talks." A man, older maybe mid-forties, with the unfortunate combination of a receding hairline and bald spot, was yelling. He faced another man who looked to be around the same age, he seemed tired and hung his shoulders in a posture that displayed defeat and submission. That man appeared to be arguing for Mr. Navona: That the Workers should hold off on anything drastic, that they should wait for Mr. Navona to convince the managers and owners to listen to the Workers.

The crowd was split, with the majority looking to the man arguing for action. They didn't have guns, but any mechanical bay was ripe with easy weapons.

"Pressure's building on this colony too." I whispered when I caught up to the guys.

"Can you blame them?" Shino replied.

"I'd probably be with them if I worked here." Eugene called back. He was in the lead, just a step behind Orga. Shino took up the back with Yamagi and I in the middle, the least combat capable. I looked at Yamagi; he was so young. I remembered when he showed up to CGS, when he screamed during the surgery to implant the Whiskers system. I remembered when they performed the same surgery on Orga; that he never made a sound; how he never broke eye contact with me throughout the ordeal, at least until one of the guys from the First Group punched him for not screaming.

Could I really blame the Workers for standing up for their friends? For their families? Sure they walked right into a setup, but at least they were trying.

All of my friends were outcasts; the ones who wouldn't be given a second glance if they were dying on the street. They were the dregs of society: too poor, too rural, too young, to be remembered and protected by a system that didn't care. We'd been abandoned, beaten, starved, and experimented on and the solar system just kept on going.

 _All humans are created equal_ ; a pretty phrase that's been trotted out and around until it became too weak to carry any weight. No matter how free and equal we all are, some are born with more rights and more freedoms. Maybe the Workers had a point. Maybe it was time to change how the world worked.


	24. Chapter 23

The buildings and machinery of the industrial zone stood empty and abandoned. Pallets and cargo boxes sat in piles where they had been tossed from their cargo trucks. I'd bet money it was one of the extremist groups looking for transport. Whether to a rally like the one we had left behind, or to an action I wasn't sure. What I did know was the chances of a clean escape were diminishing every minute we spent in the colonies.

I glanced over at Orga and knew he was thinking the same. There was a tension in his shoulders and a furrow between his brows that only came out during a particularly dangerous mission. The last time I'd seen him like this was when the First Group used us as bait. Not a fun situation to remember.

I couldn't blame the Workers for wanting to take matters into their own hands. Systematic disenfranchisement had a way of pushing people, making them into something they wouldn't recognize or pushing them to take actions they would never condone under normal circumstances. If only they weren't putting us in such a fucking bad spot while they acted.

I turned back to one of the few remaining transports. It was a truck from some sort of grain company with a logo featuring an ear of Martian corn painted on the sides and doors. The multicolored kernels reminded me of Sakura Farms and Biscuit's family. They were waiting for the return of their brother and grandson. What would we tell them if something happened to Biscuit?

"Got it." Yamagi exclaimed from under the truck's steering wheel. He held a mess of wires in each hand, the insulation peeled back to expose the metal beneath. When he touched them together, the engine roared to life.

Shino climbed into the driver's seat, "Do you still have the location the old guy gave us?" He asked.

Rather than sending a Worker with us, Mr. Navona had the coordinates of the location of the photo showing Atra and biscuit being abducted. Yamagi hurried to type them into the truck's navigation system. The screen changed to show a map with a chunk of the colony outlined in green. Names floated above each region in green and red. The red tags tended to have pretentious names and made me think a transport truck would be unwelcome.

Eugene, Orga, and I loaded up into the back of the truck with Yamagi up front to help Shino navigate the green and red zones. The back of the truck was bare, not so much as a foot or handhold to help us brace against Shino's wild turns. Eugene stationed himself at the small window at the front of the cargo hold, his hands braced against the roof. Orga held onto a handle toward the open back end of the truck. I pressed my arm against the wall below the window to try to relieve the throbbing that radiated from the bullet hole, my good arm reached up to grip the frame of the window.

The idea was simple: get our lost members, round up Kudelia and Fumitan, and get back to the Isaribi. If only the implementation were quite to easy.

Shino turned a hard right that shifted the weight of the truck so much I thought it would tip. Eugene stumbled beside me and reached out for the window.

"Are you trying to kill us?" He yelled.

"Eh, calm down Eugene. You're still here aren't ya?" Shino laughed.

"You're lucky I'm not up there–" Eugene was interrupted by another sharp turn.

"Hmm? You say somethin'?" I could hear the grin in Shino's voice.

The jarring motion made my arm throb, each time making the pain doubly worse than before. Bones broken in fights and falls were easy to deal with, after the stomach turning setting of the bone the pain was manageable. The bullet hole made the muscles of my shoulder and upper arm scream in protest at each tiny movement, as if someone has their fingers in the hole and twisted the fibers.

"Shino!" Orga snapped, one word and the argument died. Eugene grumbled something rude about Shino, who said something to Yamagi. Orga cast a worried glance my way but I shook my head. I needed him focused on Biscuit and Atra, not on me. I'd be lying if I said I didn't appreciate him worrying about me.

I twisted around to see out the window and try to distract myself from my arm. In front and a little to the right of the truck was a patch of smoke like something had exploded. It was too early for the extremists. Mr. Navona still had fifteen minutes until his armed protest reached their target.

"Orga, did you say Mika went to look for Biscuit and Atra?" I called back.

Shino saw the smoke, "How much you wanna bet that's him?"

Orga told Shino to head straight toward the smoke.

I watched the buildings as we drove past. They were the same utilitarian style as the slums on Dort Two, no color or differentiating features to them. In the sky I could see the other parts of the cylindrical habitation chamber, even from this distance I could see there were buildings in different colors, flashing lights, and drones pulling floating advertisements throughout the city. As I stared I was able to note the boundaries within the colored districts: some parts were more subdued and had no advertising drones, this part was laid out to converge on, and direct attention to a central cluster of buildings. That would be where the command centers were; the people who bought into their own self-importance tended to draw attention and puff themselves up in a way to make others _believe_ they were important.

I was thrown forward again, Eugene's arm kept me from braining myself on the window frame. The pain in my arm made black and white spots dance through my vision.

This time I joined Eugene in chastising Shino. We stopped when Orga yelled at someone to get into the truck.

"You don't know how happy we are to see you guys." Biscuit said.

Biscuit.

I ran to the back of the cargo, part of me not believing we had actually found them.

Mika handed Atra up to Orga, who steadied her before turning back to give him a hand. Biscuit hung back for a moment; when I followed his gaze I saw why. There was a thin, tall man, with a look of worry etched into the lines of his face.

He was shouting, trying to scale a chain-link fence. He wore a suit that looked like it cost more than I earned in a year under CGS; it tore on the fence. I didn't feel bad for him.

There was a Gjallarhorn officer not far behind him. His uniform was a blue and dark gray material; he wore a mask that distorted his face into something predatory, obviously to intimidate anyone he was staring down or chasing. It was a good idea, but only if the prey hadn't seen scarier things in its life.

The officer had a small handgun at his hip. I estimated we still had at least a minute until he got within reasonable shooting range.

"Biscuit! You can't take her! She's the only way to stop Gjallarhorn. If we lose her, everyone will die!" The thin man shouted; he fell to the ground as though pleading with Biscuit to give Atra back to them. I glanced back at her and saw bruising and swelling that suggested a beating.

"What the heck is he yelling about?" I asked Biscuit. He shook his head and grabbed Orga's offered hand. When he was in the cargo hold, Biscuit turned back to look at the man who still sat prostrate on the ground. The Gjallarhorn officer was starting to scale the fence.

"It was good to see you again Savarin." Biscuit called to him. His voice caught on the word Savarin. I looked back at the man, was this the Savarin Navona's men had been talking about?

The Gjallarhorn officer reached the top of the fence and opened fire on the truck. Eugene slammed his fist on the wall separating the cab from the cargo hold at the same time as Orga yelled for Shino to leave.

The officer loosed round after round until he was out of bullets.

"Biscuit, who was that?" Orga asked. Biscuit buried his face in his hands and didn't respond.

"It's his brother." Atra said sadly. She leaned with her back against the side of the van, she looked at Biscuit with eyes full of sadness. I turned back to Biscuit, "You're from the Colonies?"

He brushed his hands back through his hair, his hat toppled to the floor. When he looked at me I could see he was holding back the tears, "Yeah, we moved after my parents did. Savarin stayed."

I didn't say anything. Instead I sat next to him and gave him the best one-armed hug I could. I didn't know what else to do, I looked to Orga but he didn't offer anything more. Instead, he moved to listen to Atra recount their capture.

Apparently Gjallarhorn was on the lookout for Kudelia. The officers had beaten Atra while questioning her about the source of the weapons, under the assumption she was Kudelia. Savarin walked them right into a trap to try an prevent Gjallarhorn from mercilessly cracking down on the Workers.

I glanced at Atra, took in the bruises just starting to darken around her cheekbones. No doubt her clothes hid more evidence of her beating. She was a brave girl; she'd probably bought Kudelia time with her deception.

With Mika's guidance, Shino navigated to an alley behind the hotel where they'd left Kudelia in Fumitan's care. I had my own thoughts about that combination; Fumitan's strange behavior on the ship had ratcheted my paranoia up to higher than normal levels. But there was nothing I could do about that right then, so I stayed and hugged my friend while he fought back his tears.

The trees were the first things that caught my attention; they stood along the streets like pedestrians waiting to cross. All of them, more real and alive than I'd imagined.

The stares were second. Men and women looked at us as if we were piles of vomit dropped in their path. I met a few pairs of eyes, almost willing them to say something so that I could react, but they all turned away in disgust. Some seemed confused as to why a nicely dressed girl like Atra was with us but no one stopped to ask.

"They left separately." The hotel clerk said. He tried to busy himself with something but Orga pushed for more information.

"They left maybe 30 or 40 minutes ago. Look, I'm very busy can I please get back to my job now?" Orga turned away from the clerk, who was now extraordinarily concerned with the polish on his fake-wooden counter.

Kudelia and Fumitan were nowhere to be found when we reached the hotel. Shopping bags were still piled in their neat and orderly hotel room, suggesting a return, but there was no indication of their destination.

There was, however, a small first aid kit with a handful of bandages and small tubes of cream to prevent swelling and infection. I set to cleaning Atra up as soon as I stumbled across the meager kit.

"What happened in Dort Two?" She asked while I cleaned the small nicks on her arms and face. Her gaze flickered to my arm, pressed tight against my side.

"We were caught in the middle of a set-up. Someone in Teiwaz arranged things so that we would drop off a large supply of weapons and ammo into the hands of a bunch of disgruntled Dort workers. The workers are all under the assumption that it was Kudelia who supplied them." I replied, I avoided mentioning the shootout. It would only distract people from the bigger problems we had to deal with at the moment.

Her lips pressed into a tight line and she nodded, wincing at the movement. She wasn't the type to complain, I'd noticed. Shino's driving must have aggravated every bump and bruise she'd received, but she didn't let them distract her.

"And Gjallarhorn is after Kudelia because they really think she's the supplier." She replied.

I nodded grimly. My left hand fumbled with the top to the antibiotic, I took three seconds and thought about the nerve damage before shoving it to the back of my mind. There was nothing I could do with the hole punched into my arm until we got back to the Isaribi.

"Let me help," Atra gingerly took the tube from me and opened it. She had a question in her eyes but didn't ask.

"I got hit during the shootout, I have it packed but fine motor skills aren't my strong suit right now." Her eyes went wide, but I think the lack of worry in my voice calmed her. Maybe.

"We should start searching." Orga called out to everyone. One by one we gathered around him and Eugene.

"They can't have gone far on foot, so we should be able to catch up to them if we hurry. Every minute counts." Mika nodded and calmly strode out of the room, Atra hurried after him. The rest of us broke up into pairs to spread out the search net.

The hotel was the center, each group spread out in one direction and reunited after a fixed time to report. Each pass would be slightly longer.

I followed Orga out into a back alley, Eugene and Biscuit walked with us until they peeled off when we came to an intersection.

The rest of the colony was reacting to the Workers uprising. It was about time for the march toward the company offices to begin.

"What do you think about Biscuit?" Orga asked. I looked over at him and considered for a moment.

"Honest opinion?" I ventured. Orga nodded slightly.

"He's hurting. Pretty bad." I said. There were few things in life that hurt more than betrayal. Loss of family maybe, but when family caused the betrayal…

I looked ahead at Orga again. He was scared, frustrated, angry, so many things and yet he still cared about others.

My throat caught when I tried to swallow. Damn exhaustion was getting to me.

"How are _you_ doing?" Orga called back at me. I lagged behind a fair amount, even though he was barely jogging. I made a mental note to start joining Shino during his workouts. The hole in my arm protested when I sped up to catch Orga.

"Fine, just haven't moved around this much in a few weeks." I panted. We continued in silence until it was time to turn back. We slowed when we moved onto a street with more foot traffic. Predator instincts always drew the eye to fast moving objects, and we needed to keep as low a profile as possible.

"I was hoping our first job under Teiwaz would be a little more subdued." He said under his breath while we dodged between pedestrians. They were all moving in the same direction, away from the next intersection. Orga moved ahead of me to keep the crowd from jostling my arm.

"Who doesn't like a little excitement?" I asked dryly. I wanted to get a better look at whatever was causing the mass exodus but Orga pulled me away.

"Plenty of people." He grunted, a man elbowed into him in his haste to get away from whatever was happening. The man didn't even stop to apologize.

"Is that so?" I caught up just enough to bump my hip into his.

"Well, maybe not everyone." He flashed a brief grin at me before his eyes hardened at the crowd.

Right, missing people, guns, and protests. How could I forget?

We regrouped a block away from the hotel, in a side street with fewer pedestrians. Only Atra and Mika were missing, I felt the creep of panic working through my stomach as each second passed. The rational part of me knew that Mikazuki was more than capable of handling himself and Atra, but the irrational part of me couldn't stop thinking of all of the possibilities.

We were running around a colony seething with Gjallarhorn officers while wearing jackets emblazoned with the Tekkadan logo. At least Kudelia had a bit of anonymity to protect her.

"Guys!" I heard Atra before I saw her.

"We know where Kudelia is!" If only that knowledge put me at ease.

"We're coming to you live from the scene of an armed Unionist protest at the Dort Company Headquarters here on Dort Three. As you can see, the factory workers have come out en masse today, armed to the teeth with assault rifles and three SF-3 class Mobile Workers. The workers we've interviewed say they're here to make the management of the Dort Company rethink the negotiations for workers rights." Jessica paused while the camera passed over the crowd. She wanted the viewers to soak in the scene before she launched into an explanation of the reasons for the protest.

The production van was behind the line of Gjallarhorn officers, closer than pedestrians but still far enough away that there was little immediate threat. Jessica noted the relaxed postures of the Gjallarhorn officials but wrote it off as the kind of confidence that comes with endless drills and years of experience.

She turned her attention to the workers, in their uniforms of green and beige, then down at her own outfit: a cashmere sweater her ex had given her last year for her birthday, a pencil skirt, and a pair of kitten heels. She could see both ends of the protest from her vantage point on top of the production van. The majority of the protesters carried signs spelling out demands and perceived sleights, a few carried assault weapons. The real show stealers were three Mobile Workers parked at the front of the crowd, gun barrels pointed toward the Dort Company offices. Most people would never see one up close; the sight would be a real treat for the viewers at home.

Just behind the Mobile Workers were trucks; they had brought the workers in from industrial ports about twenty minutes earlier. Three men were standing in the back of one of the vans; She motioned the camera to sweep to them. Jessica had a feeling they were important, in part because everyone in the crowd would glance back at them as if waiting for a signal.

On the other side of the street, Gjallarhorn soldiers stood behind three Mobile Workers. Their guns were aimed at the assembled protesters. Jessica couldn't help but think that the officers had more defensive cover than the workers.

The Dort branch of 57 News was fairly new, this was one of their biggest stories and she wanted to get all the angles. If she did a good enough job here, there would be promotions in her future. Maybe even a management position.

"Jessica, did you see that girl?" A voice in her ear shook her out of her thoughts.

"No, where are you looking?" She scanned the crowd until she was a young blonde girl in what looked like a mix of schoolgirl and business attire. The protesters around her seemed energized by her presence. Dan, her field producer, was always trying to get the eye candy into the news broadcasts. She didn't mind, everyone knew that a pretty face caught attention quicker than a bunch of middle-aged people in uniforms, even if those people had guns, but she didn't see the narrative to the scene.

"What are you thinking here? Any network orders?" She asked back. Her mic was off for this segment. Viewers at home would be hearing commentary from the anchors in the studio. Anthony Ulker and Ilia Yamada would be getting into it; one taking the side of the workers while the other took the side of the managers. It was a classic strategy to try to appeal to a wide audience while filling up the news cycle. Jessica was sure neither gave a crap about either side and that both were filling the exchange with sexual tension.

"The crowd's reacting to her, just keep focused on that girl for a while." Dan said.

Jessica's cameraman, Leo, nodded to show her he'd heard Dan and was going along with it. In her head, Jessica ran through various stories she could tell about the girl.

She could use the kid as a way to comment on normal life being interrupted; how political disputes had a way of working themselves into everyday life; how dissidents took many forms. The list went on.

A rumble shook Jessica to her very core, the groan of cement ripping apart hurt her ears, and a blast of hot wind choked her. A second passed while she regained her sense, "What the hell was that? Get it on the screen!" Dan's voice grated in her ear. Jessica followed the direction of the camera to a plume of smoke rising from one corner of the Office building. She glanced back to the Mobile Workers arranged before the protesters; none of their gun barrels were smoking.

A chorus of yells and screams washed through the crowd of protestors. The crowd that had gathered behind the barricades to watch the action stampeded away, Jessica could see some people falling and being crushed by their neighbors. The Gjallarhorn officers did nothing to keep order. The men on the truck began shouting at the soldiers, "We did not shoot. We did not shoot. Everyone hold your fire! Do not shoo–"

"An assault has been launched against a civilian organization," An officer called out across the No-Man's land between the Unionist and the assembled soldiers, "We will respond in kind. All units ready to fire."

They couldn't be serious.

"Fire!"

They were serious.

The Gjallarhorn Mobile Workers released three rounds into the Protester machines, utterly destroying them in less than three seconds. Some of the Protesters opened fire at the Gjallarhorn officers. Gas canisters rolled through the crowd, shielding the scene from view.

"Whatever you do, keep that camera rolling. Jessica you're going live in five. Four…"

He never got to one.

A staccato of machine gun fire ripped through the smoke covered crowd. Jessica didn't think she would ever forget the screams and crack of bones being broken. She felt frozen in place and didn't realize she'd started counting the seconds.

"F-four. Fi-ive. Six. Seven." The bullets stopped.

The silence hung heavy in the air.

There weren't even groans of pain.

One of the ruined Mobile Workers crashed to the ground. The metallic clang echoed around the street.

Slowly the colony's air-scrubbers pulled the smoke up and away. Jessica fell to her knees. She felt sick.

The black asphalt was red and slick with the blood of the massacred crowd. Limbs were bent in odd ways from the force of the guns. The faces of the workers were frozen in the shock and horror of their final moments. The young girl stood out among the sea of bloody green bodies in her black suit. A young woman had covered her with her body in a last protective effort. The lower part of the young woman's jawbone hung down, a bullet had broken one of the parts that connected it to the skull.

Inexplicably, the young girl moved. She got to her knees. She clutched the young woman to her breast and yelled something. Jessica didn't understand the words, but she felt the indignation and anger. She couldn't help but stare at the young woman's jaw flap in response the girl's movements.

Movement drew her eyes away from the macabre scene to a woman, running across the sea of bodies. The woman, her black hair coming out of a what had probably been a neat bun, her clothes disheveled, threw herself in front of the girl just as a final gunshot tore through the street.

What the hell was this day.

Death's perfume, made of the combination of shit, piss, and blood wafted up from the bodies.

Jessica gagged.

She wanted nothing more than to escape. To lock herself in her apartment in Dort Four, where she would be safe and far away from this hell-scape. But she had a job to do.

The woman, now with a dark red blotch spreading across her back, fell atop the girl and appeared to be saying something to her. At least, that's what Jessica thought. The blonde girl was shaking her head and moved her mouth in a way that looked like speech. She still clutched the dead protester to her breast like a security blanket.

Shakily, Jessica got to her feet. She dusted off her cashmere sweater and didn't think about the ex who'd given it to her. She thought of a quick story and opened her mouth to talk. Nothing came out. She cleared her throat, shook her head, and tried again: "Turn on my mic." She said to Dan.

Said, not asked. Because if she'd asked he would have said no, and the insipid anchors would have taken the opportunity to make light of what just played out..

Leo turned the camera to focus on her. There was neither snappy reply nor countdown from Dan. The only warning Jessica received was a quiet: "You're on."

She immersed herself into her reporter persona. The easy confidence shored her up and held her firm even when her legs wanted to fail her. She turned her back on the blonde girl and the dying woman.

"The gunfire has just stopped. Moments ago, an explosion of unknown origin rocked the office building," She knew she would get in trouble for saying that, but Jessica knew what she'd seen. The explosion had not come from the conveniently destroyed mobile workers.

"The Unionist crowd that had gathered to in response to negotiations on worker's rights was has been put down by Gjallarhorn soldiers. The only survivor of the estimated two hundred person crowd is the young girl you see before you."

She said the last part to Dan. Her field producer had left the production van, slightly slack jawed at her audacity. He was a veteran of field reporting and had probably seen a ton of scenes just as this.

"The office is pulling us out. They're saying it's too dangerous for us to be here any longer."

"Nice of them." Jessica said icily. The Gjallarhorn officers were erecting blockades around the scene. It was probably best they got out of there after all.

Explosions rocked the colony. Jessica looked up all across the colony thick black smoke poured out of important buildings and transportation hubs. The remaining Unionist factions were reacting to the massacre.

"Hey! Hurry up! We need to get out of here. We're getting reports of terrorist bombings all across the colony." Dan yelled at them.

"How far are the bombings spreading?" Jessica felt something cold settle into her stomach.

"It's affecting all of the colonies. The studio is flooded with calls."

Leo swore and handed the camera down to Dan. Jessica hesitated. She looked up at the smoke, then down at the bodies.

"Why is this happening?"

An explosion was the only answer she received.


End file.
